The Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Hajia Aisha Abubakar, on Tuesday said the country was behind in implementation of the National Sugar Master Plan.
Abubakar told newsmen that only 20 per cent implementation of the plan had been achieved since its launch in 2013.
She urged all stakeholders to redouble their efforts in implementation of the plan targeting the attainment of self-sufficiency in sugar production by the country by 2020.
The minister spoke shortly before a closed-door stakeholder meeting with sugar investors in her office in Abuja.
In attendance at the meeting were representatives of the three major players in the sector, namely Dangote, Flour Mill and Bua Sugar Companies, as well as Golden Sugar Company.
Nigeria’s sugar demand currently hovers around 1.5 million tonnes per annum, while local production is yet to take off.
Abubakar said: “The master plan is a 10-year plan designed to make us self-sufficient in sugar by 2020. We are in the third year of implementation now.
“We have achieved just about 20 per cent in the implementation, meaning that we need to be more aggressive including bringing more players into the industry.
“However, we have made some progress in terms of backward integration, which is the whole essence of the plan.
“A total of 30,000 hectares of land is being cultivated by the three major players, who are doing very well.”
The minister said that she called the meeting to get feedback from the investors on their challenges and how the Federal Government could assist them.
Abubakar noted: “Investment in sugar is very capital intensive, it takes about three years to actually set up an industry, so the turnaround time is long.”
“But the existing investors are doing well and we hope that in the next two to three years, especially with Flour Mill production this November, we will move closer to our target.”
Some of the players, who also spoke with newsmen, reaffirmed the confidence of their companies in the sector and their commitment to the successful implementation of the plan.
Mansur Ahmed of Dangote Sugar said the company was committed to the backward integration commitment it signed with the Federal Government.
Ahmed, who is the Director of Stakehold Management and Corporate Communications in Dangote Industries Limited, said the Savannah Sugar Company acquired by the company in Numan, Adamawa State had started producing and plans were on for expansion.
He said that the current economic challenge in the country notwithstanding, the company was poised to remain a leader in the sector.
Also, Hugh Glyn-Jones, the Managing Director, Agro-Allied Division of Flour Mills, said the company had already invested N46 billion in its 16 hectare sugar estate in Sunti, Niger.
Glyn-Jones said: “Developing the sugar industry is a slow process and Nigeria won’t be any exception.
“You have to start by propagating the cane and replanting each year until you have enough cane to refine. It is very capital intensive.
“We at Sunti sugar estate have got to a point where we have already invested N46 billion but are not producing yet. It is that kind of industry.
“But by the time we get to N50 billion and N60 billion, we will be producing a good quantity of sugar.”
On his part, the Acting Executive of the National Sugar Development Council, Samuel Kwabe, said the country had no reason to be importing sugar because of its potential at meeting local demand.
Kwabe, who led the investors to the meeting, said this was why the three major players were made to sign the backward integration commitment under the NSMP.
He noted that what the country had done since the launch of the plan was to lay a solid foundation for its implementation, adding that the result would soon begin to manifest.
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