Nigeria to cut sugar imports to 30% by 2010

Nigeria should cut sugar imports in the next three years as it aims to become 70 per cent self-sufficient through local production of the sweetener, authorities have said.

The National Sugar Development Council said the inflow of 120.3 billion naira ($944 million) in new investment in the last eight years, 99.5 billion naira of which came from abroad, has helped revive the formerly moribund sector. "With all these ongoing developments in the sector, Nigeria will achieve its goal of 70 percent self-sufficiency in sugar requirement by 2010," the agency said.

The government has been keen in the past few years to curb Nigeria's long dependence on imported sugar, mainly from Brazil and Europe, by privatising ailing sugar mills that are now being refurbished by private investors.

Dangote Sugar Refinery, majority-owned by Nigeria's leading private conglomerate, Dangote Group, is the main sugar plant in Africa's most populous country. Dangote, which bought most of the privatised sugar plants, said in February it planned to expand capacity from 1.4 million tonnes to around 2.1 million tonnes by next year, to cater to an expected surge in local and regional demand.

The new investment has also promoted local cane production and a number of small-scale sugar mills have been established in parts of the country, the sugar agency said.

The Nation