Cardinal Torch: How a 6-Year-Old Nigerian Agribusiness is Rewriting Africa’s Commodity Story

Cardinal Torch Company Limited is a Nigerian agribusiness that is transforming the country's commodity trade. After raising ₦10 billion in the capital market and planning a stock exchange listing, the company aims to move Nigeria away from exporting raw commodities and towards producing finished, value-added goods for global markets.

Six years after its founding in 2020, Cardinal Torch has traded millions of metric tons of commodities, raised capital in Nigeria's debt market, and is building four processing plants across Ogun and Lagos.

The company's executive team is focused on full-cycle agriculture, technology, logistics, and trade. Cardinal Torch sources commodities from cooperatives and farmers across Nigeria, warehouses and tests quality, manages logistics, processes, and exports goods. Currently, the company moves 5,000 metric tons of maize monthly, 3,000 metric tons of millet, 3,000 metric tons of husked brown rice, and 300 metric tons of grain sorghum for export.

It also imports 45,000 metric tons of wheat quarterly, 10,000 metric tons of soybeans monthly, and other industrial inputs.

Cardinal Torch's four flagship projects are a raw cashew nut factory in Ogun State, a soybean solvent extraction and refinery plant, a cocoa processing plant in Ogun to produce liquor, butter, cake, and eventually chocolate, and a pasta, spaghetti, noodles, and flour plant with carbonated drinks at the Lagos Free Trade Zone. These plants will be built to BRCGS and ISO standards, ensuring world-class quality.

Cardinal Torch aims to create a legacy business that outlives its founders and becomes a public company, providing protection for the company's interest.