The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, has called for greater investment in local processing of Nigeria’s agricultural commodities to enable the country to retain more value from its vast agricultural resources.
The corporation said expanding domestic processing and strengthening agricultural value chains would create more economic opportunities while making Nigerian products more competitive in regional and international markets.
The IFC made the call as it deepened its partnership with Johnvents Group, a Nigerian agribusiness and food manufacturing company, to promote value addition, sustainable supply chains, infrastructure development, technology adoption and access to international markets.
The partnership is focused on closing the gap between agricultural production and industrial processing by encouraging more commodities to be processed within Nigeria before being exported.
Olivier Buyoya, IFC Division Director for Nigeria and Central Africa, said the growth of companies such as Johnvents demonstrated how private sector investment could support Nigeria’s agricultural transformation.
Buyoya described Johnvents as a company that had built connections between smallholder farmers and markets while expanding domestic processing and adopting higher environmental and sustainability standards.
He said the company’s 2025 Sustainability Report also demonstrated its commitment to responsible agricultural production and supported the wider objectives of the IFC’s AgriConnect initiative.
The report, prepared in line with the Global Reporting Initiative standards, provides details of Johnvents’ environmental, social and governance performance across its agricultural value chains.
Its areas of focus include traceability, deforestation free sourcing, climate governance, responsible sourcing, farmer development and measures to prevent child labour.
The company said it reached 40,000 farmers through structured capacity building programmes during the reporting period, while 122,916 hectares of farmland were verified as deforestation free.
Johnvents has grown from a business focused primarily on cocoa into a diversified agribusiness and food manufacturing group with interests covering cocoa, soybean, cashew, fast moving consumer goods and other agricultural commodities.
The company’s Founder and Group Managing Director, John Alamu, said Johnvents currently operates 10 factories in Nigeria and has business operations in 19 countries.
He added that the group maintains relationships with more than 40,000 farmers as part of its effort to strengthen agricultural sourcing and processing.
According to Alamu, the company’s integrated business model, which covers agricultural sourcing, processing, manufacturing and international distribution, is intended to increase value creation within Africa while improving the position of African products in global markets.
He said the company’s sustainability efforts had also benefited from its collaboration with the IFC, particularly in areas such as corporate governance, environmental and social performance, institutional development, farmer training and traceability.
The ongoing partnership is expected to further strengthen the connection between farmers, processors and manufacturers while supporting the development of sustainable agricultural supply chains.
The initiative is also aimed at ensuring that a larger share of the wealth generated from Africa’s agricultural resources remains within the continent through increased processing, manufacturing and access to regional and global markets.
