THE National Sugar Development Council (NSDC) is repositioning the sugar sector as one of the country’s most compelling industrial investment opportunities, anchored on a $1 billion EPC-plus-finance partnership with SINOMACH of China, a N10 billion Sugar Project Acceleration Fund established with the Bank of Industry.

This came to the fore in Abuja when Chartered Institute of Directors (cIoD), visited the Executive Secretary of the Council, Mr. Kamar Bakrin.

He said Nigeria consumes about 1.8 million metric tonnes of sugar annually, with an estimated one billion dollars flowing each year to foreign producers.

Bakrin explained that the Council views this not as a deficit to be lamented, but as a ready-made domestic market waiting to be recaptured by Nigerian producers — value that the Nigeria Sugar Master Plan (NSMP) 2.0 is designed to retain within the national economy in the form of jobs, rural incomes, foreign exchange savings and industrial capacity.

“We don’t lack policy. What we have struggled with is world-class execution,” Bakrin said, stressing that the gap is not a farming problem but a governance problem — and therefore one that serious, well-run institutions can fix”.

The ES described NSMP 2.0 as an “acceleration mandate”: a deliberate compression of Nigeria’s path to self-sufficiency, targeting the delivery of about two million metric tonnes of locally produced sugar.

Beyond Sugar: Building a Bio-Industrial Ecosystem,  Bakrin said the Council’s ambition extends well beyond substituting imports. Sugarcane, he noted, is one of the most generous crops in existence — yielding sugar, ethanol, animal feed and electricity — and NSMP 2.0 is structured to capture that full value chain.

“We have been blessed with a crop that is one of the most generous God has ever made. From sugarcane you can get sugar, you can get ethanol, you can get animal feed, you can produce power. Our job is to build a bio-industrial ecosystem around it — this is not just about producing a commodity,” he said.

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Bakrin stated that the Backward Integration Programme has been rebuilt around four principles — qualify, reward, verify and enforce — designed to give both government and investors confidence that quota privileges are matched by real production on the ground.

“Companies seeking import quotas must now demonstrate genuine commitment to backward integration, while major refiners are required to provide audited production commitments tied to their quotas, with clear consequences for shortfalls,” he stated.

“The Council is deploying satellite imagery alongside field inspections to independently verify activity at every site — replacing self-reporting with objective, data-driven oversight”.

The Executive Secretary further noted that the Council’s diagnosis of the sector’s financing challenge view that capital is available — what has been missing is a pipeline of bankable projects capable of absorbing it with a response is to industrialized project preparation itself.

“The N10 billion Sugar Project Acceleration Fund, established with the Bank of Industry, will finance feasibility studies and project preparation, converting greenfield sites into investment-ready packages.

“These packages will in turn feed the $1 billion EPC-plus-finance agreement signed with SINOMACH of China, which provides a ready channel for construction and financing once projects are prepared.

“The Council is complementing this with structured engagement with Afreximbank and a partnership with the Nigeria Governors’ Forum to fast-track the development of sugar estates across the country”.

Bakrin invited the Chartered Institute of Directors to play an active role in the emerging sugar economy — strengthening board governance across sugar estates, mills and outgrower companies, and contributing to the policy dialogue and consistency needed to attract patient, long-term capital. He assured the Institute that the Council’s doors remain open for partnership in support of national development.

In her address the leader of the CIoD delegation, Mrs. Fatima Nana Mede, commended the Council’s leadership on the visible reforms it is spearheading in the sugar industry and the momentum toward self-sufficiency. She affirmed the Institute’s readiness to collaborate with the Council in all areas of mutual interest as part of its contribution to the advancement of the sector.