Lagos — Cocoa intake has been described as potent medicine for stroke, breast cancer and cardiovascular disease. The commodity has also been scientifically proved to enhance blood circulation in the body and promote healthy teeth and skin.

Secretary General, Cocoa Producers' Alliance (COPAL), Amb. Hope Sona Ebai, disclosed this on Monday in Lagos at a pre-event media conference on the forthcoming Chocolate Village fiesta slated for between April 1 and 3 in Lagos.

COPAL with headquarters in Nigeria, is an intergovernmental organisation of 10-member country, known as major producers of cocoa in the world including the world No 4 Nigeria.

According to Amb. Ebai, higher cocoa consumption is associated with low blood pressure, death reduction from cardiovascular disease and other death causes.

He said numerous evidences have shown that cocoa is rich in antioxidants including flavonoids which help ward off some factors associated with heart attacks and stroke and also blood flow in menopausal women with high cholesterol among others.

Similarly, a particular product from cocoa also kills malaria parasite, Amb. Ebai said, while adding that personally, he has been applying cocoa butter when shaving his beard for the past 15 years without giving him rashes.

The totality of cocoa consumption, he said, is that it improves peoples' health in a variety of ways.

"But many people in Africa including Nigeria are living in the dark about the medicinal and nutritional benefits they can derive from consuming cocoa related products," he noted.

He said it is very unfortunate that Africa produces 70 per cent of the annual world cocoa output but consume only about three (3) per cent of the commodity.

Aside this, he stressed, also from the estimated US$600 billion the industry contributes annually to the world economy, producers' countries get between six and 10 per cent of the money.

These situations, he said, have continued to affect adversely not only the wellbeing of the people of the region but also it economy and particularly that of the farmers while boosting that of Europe and Americas that consume over 80 per cent of the annual world output of the commodity.

"They all know for exporting the commodity raw to Europe and America in exchange for small money that could hardly take them anywhere," he added.

He noted that of the four major cocoa producing countries in West Africa, namely Code d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon, Nigeria's policy on cocoa industry is the most inconsistent.

He said the administration of Olusegun Obasanjo was even a bit better than all others in recent time including the present Musa Yar'Adua's.

Corroborating him, Mr. Michael Owusu-Manu, Head, Economic Department, COPAL, said, Nigerian policy on cocoa production does not encourage accelerated growth of the industry.

In Ghana and Indonesia for instance, he pointed out, there is a national campaign revealing the health and nutritional values of chocolate intake and this becomes a booster for the industry.

"So virtually every home there has made chocolate part of it daily menu," he said. "This is because people are being enlightened continuously on the importance of the cocoa related products to the body and the nation's economy."

He noted that the cocoa industry of the two countries today is a potent force driving the respective economy forward.

On the belief by many people in the country that chocolate is harmful to the body, Owusu-Manu said this could only be when oily and some sweet things such as sugar are added up out of proportion when processing.

And manufacturers of those products, Manu-Owusu said, only do so for many reasons, chief among which is that many people would not want to buy products that are tasted bitter.

"Cocoa in it original form, is bitter," he noted. "But then, there are still varieties of finished undiluted cocoa products in the country."

On his part, Mr. Felix Oladunjoye, National Secretary, Cocoa Processors Association of Nigeria, COPAN, said, the lack of political will of successive administrations on cocoa production in the country is seriously slowing down the progress of the industry.

He said COPAN adds value to the cocoa beans by processing them before putting them for sales either locally or internationally.

Like Ebai and Manu-Owusu, Oladunjoye also lamented the unfortunate position Nigeria is by producing what is not consuming.

"And it is neither we don't need the commodity nor that we produce it in excess but just because something is wrong with us as a nation," he said.

He argued that if the trend is not reversed, Europe and America will also continue to dictate at what price they buy from us.

"And the implication of this is that they buy at ridiculous price," he said.

Oladunjoye further argued that if Nigerian government should take cocoa industry seriously by providing enabling environment for investors including farmers, the industry will drive the country's economy forward.

According to him, it would be to our advantage if the policy makers stop playing politics with the industry.

Government should not condition the development of cocoa industry, which is peculiar to the South West, on similar development of any other industry in the north or east.

"Such has been the problem all along with Nigeria," he noted.

And as of today, some companies producing cocoa related products in the country have relocated to Ghana where there is comparative favourable investment climate.

The development is helping Ghana's economy particularly by reducing drastically it unemployment statistic, while worsening that of Nigeria.

"But something can still be done," Oladunjoye sounded as an optimist.

He said part of the ways to get to the next level is the forthcoming international conference on Chocolate Village in Lagos, which he said his association would play an active role.

However, at the three days event, and which is the first of it kind in Nigeria according to Amb. Ebai, all stakeholders in the cocoa industry will showcase their worth.

Five secondary schools in Lagos, he added, will also be competing for a prize at the cocoa quiz competition slated for the last day of the event.