Our challenge is clear and easy to define. We must localise more of the value chain of every natural resource we produce.
Production alone can only decrease poverty. It can’t make us rich. Let’s devise how to manufacture, trade, innovate around, acquire the technology for, promote, control and consume as much of our cocoa, cotton, groundnut, livestock, gold, lithium, bitumen etc as possible.
We must localise the value chain first before we stand ANY chance whatsoever, in competing globally. Let’s get to work on how we can.
Does Nescafé have factories producing coffee in Nigeria? Ivory Coast? Ethiopia?
If not, where’s the coffee sold in those countries made?
Yes in Côte d’Ivoire, partly in Nigeria, and no in Ethiopia.
Côte d’Ivoire — yes. Nestlé’s Nescafé plant in Abidjan has made instant (soluble) coffee since 1962, for more than 60 years. It processes Ivorian Robusta bought from local farmers and cooperatives (collection points include Duékoué, Daloa, Abengourou, and Abidjan). Capacity has been reported around 9,000 tonnes. Roughly 14% of output stays in Côte d’Ivoire; about 53% goes to other African markets, especially West Africa; about 33% goes to Europe. Nestlé also supports growers there through the Nescafé Plan (tens of thousands of farming households, high-yield seedlings from its R&D work in the country).
Nigeria — some local production, but a lot of the classic soluble coffee comes from Abidjan. Nestlé Nigeria’s factories (notably Agbara) make beverages that include Nescafé lines, including ready-to-drink, and company materials have described Nigeria as a major Nescafé manufacturing base for Central and West Africa. Visitors have also been taken through a Nescafé production and packaging operation in the Lagos area. At the same time, trade records through 2024–2025 show regular shipments of finished Nescafé Classic (tins, sachets, bulk extract) from Côte d’Ivoire into Nigeria and Ghana. So jars and sachets on Nigerian shelves are often made in Abidjan from Ivorian beans, with some packing, mixes, or RTD done in Nigeria.
Ethiopia — no factory. Nestlé’s presence is a representative office in Addis Ababa (linked to the Kenya / East and Southern Africa setup), not a manufacturing plant. Nescafé sold there is imported. Nestlé’s regional coffee-mix production is in South Africa (Babelegi/Hammanskraal, opened 2023 for Nescafé Gold mixes and related products; the coffee itself was still largely imported when that line started). Classic soluble coffee for the wider region is more often tied to plants such as Abidjan or factories outside Africa. Ethiopia is an important coffee origin, and Nestlé buys beans from African origins, but it does not turn them into Nescafé inside Ethiopia.