Five years’ performances of three key players in the restart journey of the Nigeria sugarcane and sugar industry

Abstract

Nigeria with suitable land and excellent edaphic environment for sugar cane production has not been lucky in the sugar business. Even with the potential to produce up to 30 million metric tons of sugar cane yielding 3.0 million metric tons of sugar from well over 800,000 ha of suitable land for sugar cane cultivation, this has not been attained. The country’s sugar industry totally collapsed in the late 20 century and was privatized between 1999 and 2002. Consequently, a deliberate sugar policy known as the backward integration (BIP) stemmed from the Nigeria Sugar Master Plan (NSMP) was conceived by the government through the National Sugar Development Council (NSDC) in 2012 to stimulate investment in the sugar industry. The implementation of the BIP was deliberately assigned to the three major privately owned sugar refineries in the country namely Dangote, BUA and Golden Sugar Company to drive its implementation in full. The Dangote group tagged its plan “Sugar for Nigeria Project” under the BIP plan to produce 1.5 to 2.0 MT/PA refined sugar from locally grown sugar cane in 10 years across various sites. The BUA Group invested in large scale sugar cane production in the country to deepen local sugar production through the acquisition of the Lafiagi Sugar Company Ltd in Kwara State in 2008. However, full transfer to BUA was not done till 2014. The Sunti Golden Sugar Company also initiated a five-year development plan in order to be fully integrated in the BIP plan and hit self-sufficiency in commercial sugar production by 2023. This paper highlights the growth status and challenges faced by the three pioneer sugar companies mid-way in their participation in the BIP to take Nigeria to the status of a sugar producing country by 2023.