– Targets two million tonnes of locally produced sugar under NSMP 2.0– Tightens import-quota enforcement, deploys satellite monitoring for backward integrationSunday EhigiatorThe National Sugar Development Council (NSDC) has unveiled a fresh investment and enforcement strategy aimed at accelerating Nigeria’s drive towards sugar self-sufficiency, anchored on a $1 billion engineering, procurement and construction (EPC)-plus-finance partnership with China’s SINOMACH and a ₦10 billion Sugar Project Acceleration Fund.The Council said the initiative, which forms part of the Nigeria Sugar Master Plan (NSMP) 2.0, is designed to transform the country’s sugar industry into a major industrial and investment opportunity while reducing dependence on imported sugar.The Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer of the NSDC, Kamar Bakrin, disclosed the plan when he received members of the Abuja Chapter of the Chartered Institute of Directors (CIoD) on a courtesy visit to the Council’s headquarters in Abuja.According to the Council, Nigeria consumes about 1.8 million metric tonnes of sugar annually, with an estimated $1 billion flowing to foreign producers every year.Bakrin said the figure represented a ready domestic market that could be captured by Nigerian producers, generating jobs, rural incomes, foreign-exchange savings and industrial capacity.He said the central challenge confronting the sector was not the absence of government policies but poor implementation.“We don’t lack policy. What we have struggled with is world-class execution,” Bakrin said.He added the problem was fundamentally one of governance rather than farming, arguing that effective institutions could close the gap.Bakrin described NSMP 2.0 as an “acceleration mandate” designed to compress Nigeria’s journey towards self-sufficiency, with a target of producing about two million metric tonnes of sugar locally.The NSDC boss said the Council’s ambition extends beyond replacing imported sugar, noting that sugarcane could serve as the foundation for a wider bio-industrial economy.He explained that sugarcane could produce sugar, ethanol, animal feed and electricity, making it capable of supporting several interconnected industries.“We have been blessed with a crop that is one of the most generous God has ever made. From sugarcane you can get sugar, you can get ethanol, you can get animal feed, you can produce power. Our job is to build a bio-industrial ecosystem around it, this is not just about producing a commodity,” he said.To strengthen investor confidence, the Council said it had also redesigned its Backward Integration Programme around four principles: qualify, reward, verify and enforce.Under the new regime, companies seeking import quotas would be required to demonstrate genuine commitment to backward integration, while major refiners would provide audited production commitments linked to their quotas.The NSDC said consequences would apply where companies fail to meet their commitments.It added that satellite imagery would be deployed alongside physical field inspections to independently verify activities at sugar project sites, replacing reliance on self-reporting with data-driven monitoring.Bakrin said the Council had identified the absence of bankable projects, rather than a shortage of capital, as a major obstacle to investment in the sector.To address this, the ₦10 billion Sugar Project Acceleration Fund, established with the Bank of Industry, would finance feasibility studies and project preparation, turning greenfield sugar sites into investment-ready projects.The resulting projects would feed into the $1 billion EPC-plus-finance agreement with SINOMACH, creating a channel for construction and financing once projects are prepared.The Council said it was also engaging the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and partnering with the Nigeria Governors’ Forum to accelerate the development of sugar estates across the country.The Council said smallholder farmers and host communities would remain central to the new strategy through the Sugarcane Outgrower Development Programme.Under NSMP 2.0, every sugar estate would be required to reserve land for outgrowers and invest part of its capital in host communities through social infrastructure, employment and physical infrastructure.The Council said the arrangement was intended to make rural prosperity an integral part of sugar-sector development rather than an afterthought.Bakrin also cited Brazil as an example of what Nigeria could achieve through strong institutions, arguing that the country’s success in sugar production was driven more by institutional development than superior agricultural practices.“Brazil did not win by planting better cane. They won by building institutions that compounded productivity for years, for decades.”He said the NSDC was applying the same philosophy internally by developing standard operating procedures for its critical functions using Six Sigma methodology.According
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