In his interaction with the CEOAFRICA, Dr. Patrick Adebola, the Executive Director Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria,  highlighted the three major areas that his administration conquered in the year 2022. He said the institution under his watch experienced a massive turned around, which took the institution to a higher level and gave the institute a new look. 
  Dr Adebola who is an International Agricultural Research Scientist with strong background in Applied Genetics and Plant Breeding, outlined his achievements last year beginning from the core mandate of the organization which is research and development including the provision of improved planting materials to the major customers that are cultivating the five mandate crops of the organization which are Cocoa, Cashew, Coffee, kola and Tea. 
In the area of research, he said the organization was able to have her in-house review where they lay down plans for research in 2022. The in-house review was not only done by the management team, invitations were extended to the external stakeholders and top scientists as the institute scientists presented their research proposals. Inputs were made by the stakeholders, which included experts from different disciplines making significant contributions that reshaped the focus in 2022.  Secondly we were able to distribute 650,000 of improved cocoa seedlings. The beneficiaries are mostly cocoa farmers which were reached through the various farmers' organisations, state ministries of  agriculture and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development as well as other individuals that approached the ministry for help. 
The institute also distributed seedlings of coffee, kola, cashew, and other crops.  We satisfied our farmers in terms of providing them with planting materials in their farms either to plant new plantation or rehabilitate the old ones. That same 2022, we were able to put into use our flavour laboratory, which is one of the best in Africa, where cocoa samples are being analysed to determine their flavour quality. We are now partnering with Cocoa of Excellence in Rome to encourage and promote the production of high-quality cocoa that will meet international standards. In that same 2022 we jointly wrote a proposal together with Corous International,  International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, and a few other partners and  jointly won a grant of 22 million dollars from USDA. In terms of infrastructural development, we continue from where we stopped in 2021.
‘’ we have sunk boreholes in strategic areas to provide water for our people, expanded our internal road networking and  upgraded part of the administrative building. We also renovated the coppers lodge, extended our perimeter fence by almost 580 meters, installed solar light in some black spot areas in the institute, and renovated some of our vehicles. Other achievements are international collaboration, partnerships, and networking with relevant stakeholders. For the first time, six of our scientists travelled to France to attend the International Cocoa Symposium, which is a very big number compared to what has been happening in the past’’