Ken Okeke
Nigeria is taking urgent steps to reduce about $23 million spent a year on imported pharmaceutical-grade starch.
Cassava processors are now being encouraged to meet drugmakers’ quality standards as local production could open a higher-value industrial market for cassava.
Nigeria’s cassava industry seeks a foothold in the pharmaceutical-grade starch market, a move that could open a new industrial outlet for the crop and help replace about $23 million in annual imports.
The Industrial Cassava Stakeholders Association of Nigeria (ICSAN) in a move to achieve this has called on processors to target the market.
The group sees Nigeria’s pharmaceutical industry as a promising customer for cassava processors, but says local production does not yet adequately meet drugmakers’ requirements.
Pharmaceutical-grade starch is a purified form of plant starch used as an excipient in medicines. It typically serves as a binder, filler or disintegrant in tablets and capsules. It is not an active pharmaceutical ingredient, but helps give medicines their required form, stability and performance.
The industry’s interest in pharmaceutical starch builds on government efforts to develop local production.
In December 2024, the Nigerian Natural Medicine Development Agency (NNMDA) unveiled an initiative to use the country’s large cassava supply to produce pharmaceutical-grade starch locally.
The agency brought together stakeholders across the value chain and stressed the need for closer cooperation among them.
The project included plans to develop cassava cultivation for pharmaceutical applications and strengthen the capabilities of businesses across the value chain.
In a January 2026, the NNMDA Director General Martins Emeje said research into producing pharmaceutical-grade starch from local cassava was 85 per cent complete.
According to Emeje, the agency had already produced its own pharmaceutical starch and assessed its quality with funding from the Senate. The next stage is a pilot phase that is expected to include a government-owned pharmaceutical starch production facility within one to two years.
Emeje said the agency expects to have both the product and the facility where it will be manufactured within that period.
The economic opportunity also lies in import substitution. In 2024, NNMDA estimated that Nigeria spent about $23 million annually on imported pharmaceutical-grade starch.
The ICSAN says replacing those imports will require more than simply increasing starch production. Locally made products must meet drugmakers’ standards for purity, microbiological quality, performance and traceability.
The Association is calling for closer ties between cassava processors and pharmaceutical manufacturers. It also wants the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) involved in helping producers meet the necessary technical and industrial requirements.
The ICSAN said pharmaceutical companies need reliable, standards-compliant excipients, while cassava processors need stable industrial markets that can justify investment in technology and quality as the Association sees those needs as complementary.
Pharmaceutical starch could give Nigerian cassava processors another market outside the food industry. The effort is part of a broader search for industrial uses that can create more demand for the crop.
Since 2023, the government has worked to develop a domestic cassava-based bioethanol industry.
In January 2026, the government said it had begun a process to bring 14 million smallholder farmers into the cassava bioethanol value chain.
Pharmaceutical-grade starch would add another potential industrial market. But capturing the $23 million import market will depend on whether Nigerian processors can consistently produce starch that meets the strict quality requirements of the country’s drug manufacturers.