The Chairman of Flour Mill Nigeria, John Coumantaros has said that the N64 billion investment in Sunti Sugar is expected to increase its production to 100,000 tons to 150,000 ton per annum.
He said in 5 to 7 years time, Nigeria would be able to produce the 1.3 billion tons sugar it consumes annually.
Coumantaros added that currently, the two major sugar plants, Sunti and Savanah produce about 50,000 to 60,000 tons per year, while Nigeria depends on importation to meet up with the deficit.
Addressing journalists after a tour of the Sunti Sugar plant and farm covering about 17,000 hectares in Mokwa, Niger State, Coumantaros, said the N64 billion investment cultivates about 3000 hectares of sugarcane.
“Nigeria consumes about 1.3 billion tons of sugar annually and the production of Sunti and Savannah is about 50,000 to 60,000 tons per year, and the plan shows to get to self-sufficiency in a period of 5 to 7 years.
“We have spent N64 billion in building Sunti, there is a huge effort and great creation of jobs and great creation of values.
“The continued support of government is critical in maintaining a consistent policy so that the industry can develop on a level playing field and that is exactly what government is doing,” he said.
He said they were targeting to develop the 17,000 hectares the farm is covering in order to hit 100,000 tons to 150,000 tons per year sugar production.
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The Flour Mill Chairman said the sugar plant would create about 10,000 direct, and 50,000 indirect jobs around the factory and would be spending N34 billion to support the host community over the next 10 years.
“We will be spending about N34 billion over the next 10 years in support of the community and development of infrastructure in the area, this is very important, we have huge expenditure coming to the host community, creating jobs, education and building the economy in which people can make their livelihood.
“We will be having about 10,000 employees and another 50,000 indirect jobs around the area, so school with infrastructure, with investment in the community, jobs and is building business in the host community.”
Also speaking with journalists, the Chairman of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote expressed optimism that Nigeria would attain self-sufficiency in sugar production soon following the huge investment that is recorded of late.
He, however, said the challenge sugar production is facing currently include land and weather which he said if addressed would attract more investment to sugar production.
“I am very impressed, we are excited and we believe that in the next couple of years, we will be able to produce most of the sugar that we consume in Nigeria, what we are looking at is to see how we can do the same trajectory we had in cement to now transfer it to sugar, even though sugar is a little bit more difficult because you have to do with the weather, you have to do with the quality of the land, the irrigation, quite a lot of things that is not the same in cement.
“I can see Nigeria achieving self-sufficiency in sugar production, it is a question of land and the area because you can’t go to Ondo for example and grow sugar, you have to have very good land, you need to have good water, and that land might not be suitable for sugar.
“But I am sure as soon as we get enough land to grow sugar, we are ready to invest and we will invest,” he added.
The Minister of Trade, Industry and Investment, Niyi Adebayo said: “After we finish visiting all the plants, I will be calling a meeting in Abuja because the whole idea is to see how we can get Nigeria to be self-sufficient in sugar production”.
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