 Stakeholders in the cocoa value chain in Nigeria are worried over foreign interference and dominance on Nigeria's cocoa industry. They want the Nigerian government to put necessary policies in place to protect and enhance the local cocoa economy. Cocoa farmers and agriperineurs are groaning over foreign interference and dominance on Nigeria's cocoa industry as Nigeria lost its leading position in the production and export of cocoa over the years. For this to address this challenge, the International Cocoa Diplomacy says arrangements have been concluded to hold the 2024 International Cocoa and Chocolate Forum, ICCF, in Nigeria this January to chart a way forward for local cocoa economy. The Abuja session will be held on Tuesday 9th and the Lagos session will be on Thursday 11th of January 2024. ICCF 2024 Nigeria is called to action to continue the discussion where policy formation will meet investment requirements for the sole purpose of creating the cocoa culture that will begin to intentionally add value to cocoa and create world art origin to reduce dominance of the industry by consuming regions and also to explore ways for shared value and prosperity creation purposes. Of more significance is made for Nigeria to add value to its cocoa exports as a major step towards maximizing the benefit of investments in the sector. It is instructive to note that the cocoa industry, which includes cocoa beans, chocolate cake and all of that, is worth about 200 billion annually, out of which the entire West African producing region, made up of Kuduwa, Ghana, Cameroon and Nigeria, which account for about 70 to 75% of global output and only 10 billion annually. The ICCF is the main platform by International Cocoa Diplomacy for Networking Partnerships Collaborations, Ideas and Cultural Exchange, Bilateral Trade Opportunities, Learning and Forming New Alliances. The event with a theme, Putting Value in Cocoa and Producing Regions, is being organized by International Cocoa Diplomacy in partnership with Nigerian Export and Import Bank, Nexem Bank and Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria, C-R-I-N. The most important aspect of value addition is not even physical. It's very soft. Two things, policy research, innovation. So, we're working on a research with the Applied Sciences University in Zurich and Teeside University in the UK. It's about getting the right quantitative analysis of the cocoa flavor on our cocoa based on agricultural practices. In the past, it's always been based on residual values. The crop with this cocoa is Nigerian top agricultural export with $122.89 billion earned from the export of cocoa beans and cocoa products in 2022. As I've already said, if we've added value to it, it should have been more than that. But Nigerian cocoa production has actually due due over the year, and it has been degraded to just about 340 metric tons during the 2020-2021 season, and we're now number seven in the world. And as production due due, quality equally suffered, the Nigerian cocoa beans discounted or sometimes rejected by buyers, and these are all due to not adding value to our products.