Nigeria consumes 1.7m tonnes of sugar yearly – NSDC

The National Sugar Development Council (NSDC) has said Nigeria consumes 1.7 million tonnes of sugar yearly. The Executive Secretary of the council, Mr Zacch Adedeji, said this yesterday in Abuja.

He said while Nigeria has attained sufficiency in refined sugar production for the domestic market, the country is still importing raw sugar to feed the sugar factories.

He said the importation of raw sugar and the fluctuation in foreign exchange are partly responsible for changes in prices of refined sugar.

He said the Backward Integration

Programme (BIP) of the Nigeria Sugar Master Plan would address the raw sugar importation issue over time.

He expressed satisfaction with the players in the BIP, adding that within the last seven years of the implementation of the BIP, Nigeria has achieved over 3m metric tonnes of refining capacity.

He listed land access, community hostilities, foreign exchange restrictions and natural disasters as challenges of the sugar sector in the country.

He said as a means of addressing insecurity in sugar production host communities, no less than 20 percent of the sugarcane grown in any area must be done by the people of the area to create inclusion and reduce insecurity.