The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has raised the alarm over the potential for the expansion of cocaine market in Africa and Asia.

UNODC in a new report also decried the growing cultivation of coca bush and improvements in the process of converting coca bush to cocaine hydrochloride.

The agency warned that West and Central Africa were increasingly being used as key transit zones for the drug.

The Global Report on Cocaine 2023 detailed how coca cultivation soared 35 per cent from 2021 to 2022, with the rise being a result of both an expansion in coca bush cultivation and improvements in the process of converting coca bush to cocaine hydrochloride.