PROFITABILITY ANALYSIS OF BAMBARA NUTS (OKPA) MARKETING IN EBONYI STATE, NIGERIA

The study examined the profitability of bambara nuts (okpa) marketing in major markets in Ebonyi State, Nigeria. Two LGAs (Abakaliki and Ikwo) were purposively sampled with eight markets in each LGAs randomly selected using the simple random sampling technique also ten Bambara nuts traders were also sampled using simple random sampling procedure. Primary data was used for this study and analyzed using both descriptive and budgetary analysis. According to the findings, majority of respondents (41.3%) were between the ages of 21 and 30, and 71.2% were females. Additionally, 45.0% of respondents had households of 6 to 10 people, and 36.2% of respondents had completed secondary school as their highest level of education. Additionally, 15.0% of respondents had above 16 years of experience in processing and selling Bambara nuts (okpa) in the study area, generating ₦152,000,000 in net revenue, and ₦158,000,000 in gross margin. Result also revealed a BCR and ROI of ₦1.38k and 3.75%, respectively. The study also revealed that the major constraints faced by Bambara groundnut traders in the study area were poor perception of bambara nut marketing as a low-achieving occupation (17.5%), and the issue of trade being regarded as occupation for women (15.0%) with high cost of transportation (13.8%) when sourcing the raw materials (Bambara groundnut) both inside and outside the State which was the third highest barrier to Bambara nuts marketing in the study area.