The National Sugar Development Council (NSDC) has called on more investors to go into the cultivation of sugarcane in order to fill the raw material sourcing gap and attain self-sufficiency in the cultivation of sugarcane after attaining surplus in the sugar refining capacity.
Executive Secretary of the Council, Mr Zacch Adedeji, who made this call in Yola, Adamawa State during a working visit to the Numan Operations of Dangote Sugar Refinery, noted that Nigeria has raised its refinery capacity to beyond the refining infrastructure needs in the last 10 years, but there is a need to raise sugarcane production to feed the refineries.
The Dangote Sugar Refinery in Numan Sugar Complex is a sugar production operation on 32,000 hectares of land for the cultivation and milling of sugarcane to produce finished sugar.
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According to Adedeji, apart from the big-time sugar producers, including the Dangote Group, the BUA Sugar Company in Lafiagi, the Sunti Golden Sugar Estate in Niger State, and the Shonga Sugar Production Company in Kwara State, the NSDC is looking to outgrowers, who may be mostly individual farmers, to grow sugarcane and supply it to the various refineries.
He pointed out that the huge achievement of the refineries in the last 10 years was due to the implementation of the Nigerian Sugar Masterplan Phase 1, adding that Nigeria only imports raw sugar that is being refined locally, and that Phase 2 of the Masterplan would focus on producing enough quantities of sugarcane for existing sugar refineries around the country.
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“Our total sugar consumption today is 1.7 million metric tonnes. By the end of the next 10 years, we want to be in a position to produce 1.8 million metric tonnes, meaning that we want to produce more than we consume in the country”. Adedeji said.
