The National Sugar Development Council, NSDC, has emphasised the potential impact of the Nigerian sugar industry on the economy and rural livelihoods.
Executive Secretary of NSDC, Mr. Kamar Bakrin, who stated this said a fully-developed sugar industry is capable of tackling Nigeria’s security challenges from the root cause by creating jobs and taking development to the rural areas.
Bakrin stated this during a strategic meeting between the NSDC and the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, at the Customs Headquarters in Abuja with the Comptroller-General, Mr. Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, and senior officials of the Service in attendance.
The NSDC boss told his host that modern sugar estates are designed to generate their own electricity independently of the national grid while also supplying excess power for national use.
“If Nigeria succeeds in developing a proper sugar sector, one of the things we would do is convert an annual outflow of over one billion dollars into jobs, security, and industrialisation.
“The sector can create 250,000 direct jobs and an additional indirect 750,000 jobs across its value chain, primarily across about 12 states. The beauty of it is that these are rural jobs, not city jobs,” he said .
He also linked the development of sugar estates to improved national security, noting that such projects create massive employment opportunities for young people who might otherwise remain vulnerable to criminal activities and social unrest.
“When you have sugar projects, you don’t have unrest or any security challenge because you create so many jobs for the youths,” he stated.
“A sugar estate provides its own power; it does not rely on the national grid. As a matter of fact, it contributes to the national grid. A sugar estate consumes only about 50 percent of the energy it produces, while the rest can be injected into the national grid.
“And we are talking about 400 megawatts. That is enough to power at least a small modern city or community,” he added.
Bakrin explained that beyond sugar production, the sector offers a major opportunity for rural industrialisation, energy security, infrastructure development, and economic diversification.
He described the Customs Service as the most critical enforcement institution for the success of the sugar master plan, particularly in the areas of quota administration, import regulation, fiscal incentives, and anti-smuggling enforcement.
He noted that the Federal Government is determined to reverse the country’s over-reliance on sugar imports by encouraging large-scale investments in domestic production through predictable policies and stronger institutional collaboration.
The NSDC Executive Secretary said the successful implementation of the NSMP II would convert over one billion dollars currently spent annually on sugar imports into domestic investments capable of creating jobs, developing rural communities, and strengthening Nigeria’s industrial base.
He further disclosed that Nigeria possesses over one million hectares of tested and suitable land for sugar cultivation, while only about 200,000 hectares would be required for the country to attain sugar self-sufficiency.
He said investors, considering investing billions of dollars in sugar projects, require confidence that approved policies and incentives would be transparently and consistently enforced.
Responding, the Comptroller-General of Customs said the Service fully supports the sugar sector transformation agenda, describing the projected energy contribution of the industry as a major national economic opportunity.
“The potential for job creation, security, rural development, and the added value in terms of energy that we can use speaks directly to Nigeria’s economic priorities,” Adeniyi stated.
He assured the NSDC of Customs’ readiness to strengthen intelligence sharing, data transparency, quota enforcement, and operational collaboration to ensure the effective implementation of the NSMP II.
The two institutions therefore reaffirmed their commitment to work together on five key areas with a view to resolving longstanding bottlenecks around the sustainability of sugar estates and attraction of critical investments into the sector.
These five priority areas include market stability, information on imports and importers, implementation of quota allocation, implementation of sugar incentives and tackling the menace of smuggling.
According to the NSDC boss, the implication of the above five priority areas include the continuous implementation of the approved fiscal incentives for only eligible, verified operators; provision of real-time data sharing on sugar import volumes and importer identities to enable informed and intelligent decision-making and continuous enforcement of approved import quotas.
The two agencies are also expected to work together to ensure that duty waivers and differentiated tariffs reach only eligible and verified operators and fast-track clearance of eligible machinery and equipment.
They equally agreed to establish joint intelligence and enforcement team to combat illicit sugar imports that are undermining the sector.
The Comptroller-General also called for periodic review meetings between both institutions to assess implementation progress, address operational challenges, and jointly brief President Bola Tinubu on developments within the sector.
