SUGAR SECTOR BOOMING

Nigeria’s sugar sub-sector received investments totalling over US $3 billion in the last decade after the “Nigeria Sugar Master Plan” was implemented.

Mr Zacch Adedeji, the executive secretary of the NSDC (National Sugar Development Council) has said that there has been five investors that directly signed into the backward integration programme aspect of the plan. The five companies in question being; Dangote Sugar Refinery, BUA Sugar Refinery, Golden Sugar Refinery, KIA Africa Group and the latest being Saro Africa Group. Mr Adedeji spoke at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Saro Africa Group and the Nasarawa State government for a sugar project to be domiciled in Doma and Nasarawa Council of the state, saying that the sector had created thousands of jobs through the BIP Operators.

The Saro Africa Group operates in a number of industries including agriculture, engineering and real estate.
The project is said to sit on 15,000 hectares of land for the first phase with other phases to follow.

The NSMP has four main goals; for Nigeria to become self-sufficient for sugar production, stem the flow of sugar importation, create jobs for Nigerians, and to generate electricity and ethanol for industrial needs.

Aliko Dangote, the President of the Dangote Group announced the the Dangote Sugar Refinery PLC is massively upscaling their sugar sub-sector investment to coincide with the Nigeria Sugar Master Plan. He has said that the company is investing in Adamawa State through the expansion of DSR Numan sugar, from 3,000 tonnes, to 6,000 tonnes, to 9,800 to 15,000 tonnes of cane per day. With the increase of refining sugar cane will also have to increase production capacity so they will be expanding the plantation from 8,700 hectares to 24,200 hectares in the next 7 years.

Source: Food Business Africa, December 2022