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Nigeria seen on track for sugar self-sufficiency
25/11/2014
LONDON (Reuters) - Nigeria is on track to achieve sugar self-sufficiency in about 10 years' time, which will enable Africa’s most populous country to sharply reduce imports of predominantly Brazilian raw sugar.
Latif Busari, CEO of Nigeria’s National Sugar Development Council, said that so far more than $3 billion of private investment had been lined up to develop farms across the country to boost domestic sugar output from 20,000-30,000 tonnes a year now to around 1.8 million tonnes a year in 10 years’ time.
Nigerian sugar consumption is expected to increase to around 1.8 million tonnes a year in 10 years’ time, from some 1.2-1.3 million tonnes a year now.
Nigeria has three sugar refineries.
“We want to be food secure for our population of 170 million people,” Busari told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of a two-day International Sugar Organization(ISO) seminar on Tuesday.
“We also see the advantages of co-generation of electricity from sugar production, and we want to cut down seriously on raw sugar imports.”
Busari said Nigeria’s sugar development plan could potentially create some 180,000 new jobs in the sugar sector, contributing to reduce high levels of unemployment in the country.
The ISO seminar ends on Wednesday.
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