Nigerian agribusiness group Johnvents Industries Limited is in line for a $72 million financing package from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s private-sector arm. If approved, the money would help the company move deeper into processing and logistics across Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire.
The proposal centres on two plants and a fleet. In Nigeria, the company would build a sesame processing facility with a planned capacity of 50,000 metric tons a year. In Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s leading cashew-producing country, it would set up a plant able to handle 30,000 metric tons of cashew annually. The package would also pay for 30 new trucks to strengthen the group’s distribution network.
The financing is debt, not an equity stake. It would combine an IFC loan of up to $50 million from its own account with a loan of up to $22 million that the IFC would mobilise from other lenders. Most of the funds are earmarked for new plants and equipment, with the balance supporting working capital. The deal remains a proposal and is subject to approval.
Founder John Alamu retains an effective ownership stake of about 95% in Johnvents. His strategy is to keep more of the value from African crops on the continent by processing them locally and investing in the logistics that move them to market, rather than exporting raw commodities.
This would not be the IFC’s first deal with the company. In 2024, it backed a $23.3 million package to expand Johnvents’ cocoa processing plant in Ondo State. British International Investment also committed $40.5 million to the group’s cocoa operations. Johnvents has grown from a commodities trader founded in 2016 into one of Nigeria’s more prominent agribusiness names, with sesame exports among its strengths.
The IFC’s wider agenda around the project reportedly includes climate-smart farming training, cocoa traceability and support for roughly 40,000 farmers. The financing would also carry environmental and social safeguards covering labour practices, industrial waste, land use and supply-chain risks.
Nigeria exports large volumes of sesame and other crops in raw form, leaving much of the profit to foreign processors. A successful deal would add processing capacity close to the farms and show that development finance can help Nigerian-owned firms capture more of the value chain. It would also extend a Nigerian company’s reach into Francophone West Africa.
