FG to boost sugar production

sugar

In a bid to guarantee self-sufficiency and create jobs in the country, the Federal Government has disclosed plans to increase investments in the sugar industry to boost production levels.

The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Okechukwu Enelamah, made this known in Abuja, at the mid-term review meeting of the Nigeria sugar master plan.

Enelamah said we need to consolidate on the Backward Integration Policy (BIP) of the Federal Government which began four years ago, to meet the desired result of 70% self-sufficiency target in the next ten years.

The minister also explained that the sugar sector in the country grapples with more frightening challenges unlike the cement policy, but the government is not ready to stage a back out adding that the next five years will see a total turnaround in the country.

He charged stakeholders in the sector to come up with functional and sustainable solutions to the sector’s challenges, noting that the only way to go is the private and public partnership. He added that the government will provide the enabling environment for stakeholders to operate.

“We have been experiencing challenges in the sugar industry which must be overcome. This is part of the reasons why the acting President inaugurated the industrial council that would bring together stakeholders in both private and public sectors to boost industrialisation,” he said.

The Executive Secretary of the sugar council Dr. Abdullatif Busari expects that Nigeria will attain a zero percent importation of sugar by the time the policy reaches its maturity of ten years and that it will make it possible for Nigeria to export to other African nations.