- The Federal Government on has said the domestic production of sugar would take off from next year with an estimated initial output of 700,000 tons.
- Dr Latif Busari, the Executive Secretary of the National Sugar Development Council (NSDC), said this in an interview in Abuja.Busari said the projected take off output would be contributed by three private investors, Dangote, Bua and Flour Mill Sugar Companies.
- To this effect, he said the three companies had already signed separate agreements with the government for the execution of backward integration projects, which the council was monitoring.
“The Savanah Sugar Company in Adamawa, which was acquired by the Dangote Group in 2002, has also given its commitment to commence production in 2016. Currently, they have expanded their field in Numan to about 7,000 hectares and they are planning to further expand it to 10,000 hectares by 2018 with an installed capacity of 100,000 tons.
- He explained that the sugar project owned by Flour Mill at Sunti, Niger State, will also begin operation by 2016 with an estimation of 50,000 ton per hectare sugar mill.
He said: “Twenty years ago, the Savannah Sugar Company and the Nigerian Sugar Company, which were the two major sugar companies in the country, were at a point of collapse.
What happened between 1995 and 2005, ten years later, was mainly the establishment of refineries, first was the Dangote Sugar Refinery in 2000 followed by Bua refinery in 2006,’’ Busari said.