ACA Board President honoured for role in Cashew development

The National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN) has honoured the President of the African Cashew Alliance (ACA), Mr Babatola Faseru, for his role in the growth of the Nigerian cashew industry.

The astute cashew businessman received this honorary award at this year’s National Cashew Flag-off ceremony held in Ogbomosho Tuesday to officially open the 2022 cashew season in Nigeria.

According to the NCAN, the award was in recognition of his efforts and commitment to developing the cashew industry in Nigeria over the past two decades as the Chairman of the Cashew Development and Investments Project Limited as well as E-brand Investments Limited and serving as the President of the association for nine years.

Mr Faseru expressed delight in receiving the award as a recognition of his effort, expressing his continuous commitment to support and collaborate with all stakeholders to develop the sector in Nigeria.

He said the ACA, under his leadership, will continue to work closely with stakeholders, and development partners towards building a competitive cashew industry in Africa.

Profile of Mr Faseru 

Mr Babatola Olutoba Faseru is an astute businessman. He has a rich background in banking having worked at First Bank Nigeria Plc. and Lead Merchant Bank Limited. He is the Executive Chairman of Colossus Investments Limited, a leading agricultural commodity exporting company in Nigeria. He is also the Chairman of Cashew Development and Investments Project Limited as well as E-brand Investments Limited.

Mr Faseru was the chairman, membership committee of the Nigerian-Ukrainian Business Council and a member of the Lagos State Public Service Club, Ikeja.

He was an executive council member of the African Cashew Alliance (ACA) from 2012-2014 and was subsequently elected Vice President of ACA, a position he held until 2018. He is the current Board President of the ACA, following his election in December 2020.

He has been in the Agricultural Commodities Export business for Twenty-Seven (27) years. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria, and Master's in Business Administration (MBA), specializing in Finance and Marketing, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Credit Administration (FICA).

Mr Faseru served as the President of the National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN) from 2011 to 2020. Working closely with his vibrant team, he transformed the Nigerian Cashew industry with significant improvement in the quality of Nigerian cashew nuts to the delight of the global market and enhanced earnings for the local cashew industry. During this period specifically in 2013, cashew was nominated as a transformational crop under the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) of the Federal Government of Nigeria. Cashew was subsequently selected as one of the thirteen (13) National Strategic Export products aimed at diversifying the Nigerian economy away from oil in 2015. In recognition of his hard work in repositioning Nigeria’s Cashew sector, the National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN) was awarded ‘the Most Active Association of the year’ in 2017.      

Mr Babatola Faseru led the very first Nigerian delegation to the Vietnamese Cashew Conference in November 2012. At the Golden Cashew rendezvous Vietnam in 2013, he signed an MOU with his Vietnamese counterpart for 80,000 metric tonnes of Nigerian raw cashew nuts valued at US$60million. This opened the Vietnamese market to Nigerian cashew exporters and established significant trade relations and technical cooperation between the two countries.

Babatola has had the privilege of representing West Africa in several countries among which are Singapore, India, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Vietnam and Brazil.