Sugar industry key to addressing unemployment, insecurity — NSDC boss 

The Executive Secretary/CEO of the National Sugar Development Council, NSDC, Mr. Kamar Bakrin, has said that developing Nigeria’s sugar industry could significantly address unemployment, insecurity and rural community underdevelopment by creating massive jobs and attracting investments to rural communities.

Bakrin stated this during a strategic meeting between the NSDC and the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, at the Customs Headquarters in Abuja.

Speaking to the Comptroller-General of Customs, Mr. Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, and senior officials, Bakrin said a fully-developed sugar sector could transform the over $1 billion spent annually on sugar imports into domestic investments, jobs and industrial growth.

According to him, the industry has the potential to create about 250,000 direct jobs and another 750,000 indirect jobs across the sugar value chain in about 12 states.

“The beauty of it is that these are rural jobs, not city jobs. When you have sugar projects, you don’t have unrest or security challenges because you create opportunities for the youths,” he stated.

Bakrin also highlighted the energy potential of sugar estates, explaining that modern sugar projects generate their own electricity independently of the national grid while contributing excess power to the country.

“A sugar estate consumes only about 50 percent of the energy it produces, while the rest can be injected into the national grid. We are talking about 400 megawatts, enough to power a small modern city,” he said.

He noted that Nigeria has over one million hectares of suitable land for sugar cultivation, adding that only about 200,000 hectares would be required for the country to attain sugar self-sufficiency.

Responding, the Comptroller-General of Customs, Adeniyi, assured the NSDC of the Service’s support for the sugar sector transformation agenda.

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