*Says, Nigeria loses billions to raw cocoa exports

Fidelis David in Akure

The founder and Group Managing Director of CapitalSage Holdings, Mr. John Alamu, has called for an urgent shift from exporting unprocessed cocoa beans to producing and exporting finished goods such as chocolate, cocoa butter, and powder, to multiply the nation’s earnings and create massive employment opportunities.

Speaking on the remarkable growth of his business empire, which began in 2014 with just N100,000, Alamu said value addition through processing remains the golden key to transforming Nigeria’s economy.

He noted that the country’s long-standing dependence on raw cocoa export was costing the nation billions in lost revenue.

“An exporter of raw cocoa makes about $8,000 per tonne, but by processing the same into finished products like chocolate, the value rises to as much as 30 times more,” he explained, emphasising that this philosophy has guided the evolution of CapitalSage Holdings into a multi-sector conglomerate driving Africa’s economic renaissance.

Alamu, who said he’s driving value across several sectors, said the company’s subsidiaries, Johnvents Group, which is currently a rising global integrated value chain participant and has become one of the leading supply chain participants and processor of sesame, cocoa, legumes, cashew, soya, edible nuts, rice, and rubber, boasting millions of dollars in annual revenue.

Alamu said with 10 factories, including Johnvents Industries and Premium Cocoa Products (Ile-Oluji, Ondo State), one of Nigeria’s oldest cocoa plants, the Group possess the capacity to process up to 48,000MT of cocoa annually for export to Europe, Asia, and the US.

“Johnvents Group (CapitalSage Holdings’ agribusiness group) is, through its business units, building strength across multiple agri commodities and consumer markets,” he said.

He explained that its cocoa unit anchors global exports of butter, liquor, cake, and powder, while the sesame and legumes unit sources and supplies premium-grade sesame, soya, and grains from multiple origins across Africa and beyond.

According to him, cashew and edible nuts add further diversity to the company, expanding Africa’s presence in the global nut value chain.

The edible oil, feed, and water unit powers agro-industrial complexes with oil feed and bottled water, employing hundreds of women in the process.

Alamu, said the rice and rubber unit contributes to food and industrial crop security, while the FMCG division delivers household-ready products such as cocoa powder, beverages, cereals, and seasoning cubes to a growing distributor network.

In a recent Forbes Africa Independence Day Edition, Alamu had disclosed that with N100,000 in 2014, he began offering small loans to farmers and market women in rural areas in Nigeria.

This, along the line evolved into CapitalSage Holdings, a diversified conglomerate spanning agribusiness, finance, technology, healthcare, and manufacturing.

“We started with N100,000; today, we’re building global businesses from Africa. Today, CapitalSage Holdings employs over 2,000 people directly, supports more than 10,000 farmers, operating across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East,” he added.

Meanwhile, Kolomoni, which is his company’s fintech arm, claims thousands of point-of-sale agents, merchant and network managers, advancing financial inclusion in a country where nearly 40 percent of the population remains unbanked.

Ercas, another fintech, underpins digital transactions and back-end infrastructure for payments.

However, despite the successes recorded, Alamu said the mission was more than corporate success, but rather economic independence.

He said, “The next struggle, like independence, is economic freedom.

“That requires courage, disruption, and African confidence.”

CapitalSage Holdings’ fintech arm, CapitalSage Technology, has recorded uncommon feat as it currently holds a BBB+ credit rating from all three Nigerian SEC-recognized agencies, GCR, Agusto & Co., and DataPro, which is a strong signal of governance, transparency, and fiscal discipline.

Likewise, Johnvents Group, the agribusiness and manufacturing subsidiary, maintains its own BBB+ rating, which further reinforces the Group’s credibility and performance strength in capital markets.

Recognising the contributions of Alamu to Nigeria and Africa’s economy, he recently received the Business Conglomerate Leadership Award at the Marketing Edge Awards.

“This is to serve as impetus for his vision of building enduring businesses across Africa’s most critical sectors”, Alamu added.

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