Our Plan to Make Nigeria Globally Competitive in Sugar Production – NSDC Boss
The Executive Secretary of the National Sugar Development Council, Mr Kamar Bakrin, has pledged his commitment to driving more investments into the sugar sector through the effective implementation of the Nigeria Sugar Master Plan (NSMP) Phase II.
He said this in a presentation made during a courtesy visit by leaders of the Commerce and Industry Correspondents Association of Nigeria (CICAN).
He said the Council has started the revitalisation of the Nigerian Sugar Institute (NSI) in Ilorin, Kwara state, in order to achieve production of two million seedlings.
The Sugar Council boss added that the seedling would be supplied to operators to help them fast-track the development of sugar in their states.
Barkin disclosed that the Council also identified three strategies that would help grow the sugar sector through its NSMP II.
He said the master plan which was launched in 2012 with a number of targets, aims to assist Nigeria attain self sufficiency in sugar production.
“There are four key pillars to the NSMP, the key part of it is to promote backward integration that is as much as possible the development of sugar production in Nigeria, it also provides for fiscal incentives, part of which includes things like a 0 per cent tariff. NSMP also calls for assistance to investors in the provision of things like feasiblity studies,” he said.
Mr Barkin added that increasing the output of sugar locally to match domestic demand is one of the strategies the Council would use in accelerating the goals of the NSMP II.
He said: “The second one is to become a globally competitive player. Compared to nations like Brazil, which have huge natural advantages. We also want to ensure that we become a globally competitive producer of sugar as a country so that it will make imports a lot less attractive.
“And the third leg of it is going beyond sugar. How do we maximise the output of the sector because this sector also by the way, produces ethanol, produces energy power, produces animal feeds, so we are saying how do we maximise the scope of the industry’s output? So these are, in a sense, our strategic goals or strategic objectives,” he explained.
The Executive Secretary added that the Council has been able to onboard two new sugar investors who showed up with about 20,000 hectares of land.
“We have redesigned the backward integration performances as a framework to ensure that there is proper alignment between the objectives of the NSMP and what the actors are doing, so if you are doing well, you get rewarded. If you are not doing well, it will show in the kind of incentives you get,” he added.
