Authors : J.A. Folayanand and A.E. Oguntade
Abstract: Cocoa Board which used to monopolize the marketing and exporting of cocoa produce in Nigeria was scrapped alongside with the other Commodity Boards in June 1986 as a result of inefficiencies in the Commodity Board System. The abolition of cocoa board ushered in the era of free market operations under which many private individuals, firms and corporate bodies are free to engage in the domestic trading and exportation of the produce. The study used descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution and percentages derived from data collected from 140 cocoa market operators in the study area. The study revealed that cocoa farmers, cocoa LBAs, cocoa exporters, banks/financial institutions and warehousing agents are the key players in cocoa marketing. It further revealed that pre and post-harvest financing is key to cocoa trade and that the cocoa marketers have multiple sources of capital to finance their cocoa trading. The Nigeria LBAs were the major source of capital to cocoa farmers, the exporters; the major sources of finance to the LBAs while the banks and other financial institutions are the greatest source of finance to the exporters. It can be concluded that cocoa business cannot be done on a large scale without some modicum of credit extension; this undoubtedly was the reason why 76.92% of the LBAs would not want to change their credit policy.
J.A. Folayanand and A.E. Oguntade , 2007. Embededness of Financing in Cocoa Marketing in a Deregulated Nigeria Environment. The Social Sciences, 2: 41-45.