The short term approach adopted by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) to combat the spread of black Sigatoka in the plantain growing regions of West Africa, was to distribute disease resistant exotic cooking banana cultivars. Five cooking bananas were distributed to extension services in Nigeria for dissemination to Nigerian farmers. Quality assessment of cooking bananas showed the exotic material produced higher yields than plantain, however fruit size and peel colour were less appealing to consumers. Taste panel analysis showed that cooking banana cultivars Pelipita and Bluggoe were considered of good quality, whereas Fougamou was considered poor, compared with local plantain landraces. In East Africa a range of cooking banana cultivars were introduced in the 1960's and have been successfully adopted by farmers, who use the fruit for beer making. In West Africa no specific market has yet been identified for cooking banana cultivars and adoption has been slow. This study compared the quality of cooking bananas with local plantain and investigated the marketing opportunities for this new crop in West Africa.