The Executive Secretary, National Sugar Development Council (NSDC), Mr Zacch Adedeji, has hailed President Muhammadu Buhari for approving the phase 11 plan for the implementation of the Nigeria Sugar Master Plan (NSMP), an ambitious and well-thought-out policy for the sugar sector, saying the gesture will boost investors’ confidence and also attract more investments to the industry.
With an initial 10-year mandate to revitalise the sector to enable Nigeria to attain self-sufficiency in sugar production, the NSMP was first launched in 2012 and began operation in 2013.
Only recently the Federal Executive Council approved the second phase of the plan to operate from 2023 to 2033, a development hailed by top industry players.
A statement from Abdullahi Yunusa, head of the Public Affairs unit of the council said Adedeji spoke when he led some senior officials of the council on an inspection visit to the Lafiagi Sugar Company, a subsidiary of BUA Foods Limited located in Lafiagi, Kwara State.
He said the approval of phase 11 was a testament to the confidence reposed in the sector and the council.
“This singular act points to the fact that Nigerians are pleased with what the council, our supervising ministry and operators have been doing with regard to the meaningful revitalisation of the sugar sector.
“To whom much is given, expectedly, much would be expected. We are quite optimistic that a lot would be achieved in this phase 11 of the NSMP.”
“In line with the expectations of President Buhari and Nigerians, we shall in the shortest possible time attain self-sufficiency in sugar production and export to neighbouring African countries.
“But you know that one of the things that we have the mandate to do is to assess what has happened in the last 10 years, the lessons that we need to include as we begin a new journey come 2023.
“We shall tinker a bit with what we had in the past. Essentially, our next phase of activities would be anchored on verifiable data and innovation to make our work seamless.”
He said the development would offer existing key players in the sector ample opportunity of build on what had been achieved in the first 10 years of the implementation of the NSMP, assuring that human and material resources would be deployed to meaningfully grow the industry.
He said the visit to Lafiagi Sugar Company was primarily to assess the level of work so far done by the company, discuss the new modalities for reporting progress in line with the NSMP Phase 2 guidelines and harp more on the supremacy of the NSMP which he described as the Bible and Qur’an of the sector.
Mr Adedeji said: “We are on a fact-finding and inputs-collating mission to the BIP sites of major sugar operators across the country. We are interested in knowing the challenges and hitches hampering your operations here.
“It is gratifying to note that Phase 2 of NSMP which was recently granted by President Buhari offers us the golden opportunity to correct mistakes encountered in the first phase.
“We are getting inputs now to ensure that we start the next phase on a sound footing. This is the first of the many interactions that we would be having in the days ahead. What I expect from you people is the provision of a detailed plan, covering the next five years to help us plan and manage communications. Data is very important here in driving activities in the sector.”
“Today as we have explained during our closed-door meeting with officials from BUA sugar, we are actually on a fact-finding visit. You will recall in February when we distributed the raw sugar quota to all our major operators, one of the things we all agreed upon is that subsequent quota would depend solely on their BIP performance, that is, on what they have done at their separate BIP sites.
“Here is the BIP site for BUA and that is why we have come here with my team to see what has been achieved or done since the last time we visited here. We are here to hear from them what they intend to do as well as their plans for the future.
“For the 2023 raw sugar quota allocation, all these inputs would be included and we will know what is due to them based on what have been able to achieve in the outgoing year.”
“We have listened to them in the presentation they made earlier. They outlined a number of challenges confronting them. As you know, Nigeria is part of the global system. So the delay identified in some areas were explained based on the scarcity of forex, the ongoing war in Ukraine and many other external factors which slowed down their pace of progress on the site.
“But we commend their effort and their commitment towards making sure that our dreams and goals for the sugar sector are realised.”
The inspection team from the Council later paid homage to the Emir of Lafiagi, Alhaji Mohammed Kudu Kawu, in his palace.
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