Barring last minute change of plans, Nigeria is set to export cassava bread to ECOWAS region starting with Ghana, Togo and Benin Republic.

The minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Akinwunmi Adesina who disclosed this yesterday in Katsina said the export will begin by December this year.

"I am pleased to inform you that starting December 2012 UTC will start exporting cassava bread to ECOWAS region" Adesina said assuring that "Nigeria will become the largest producer of cassava bread in Africa and help other African countries to do same and reduce dependence on wheat imports"

The minister who revealed that the nation has secured a total of 2.2 million metric tones of dried cassava chips exports to China said the federal government was turning cassava from a non tradable commodity to a tradable commodity.

He said the initiative was part of the federal government's value chains for cassava noting "we are expanding the production of high quality cassava for use in composite flours to substitute for some of the imported wheat flour."

It would be recalled that UTC in February 2012, commercialized the cassava flour bread with 20% cassava flour substitution for wheat flour.