Juliana Agbo, Abuja
The Chairman, Flour Mill Nigeria (FMN), John Coumantaros has said Nigeria would achieve self-sufficiency in sugar production between five to seven years with the firm’s N64 billion investment on ground.
Coumantaros also said the country would be able to produce the 1.3 billion tons sugar it consumes annually, thereby ending Nigeria’s dependence on sugar importation.
Addressing journalists after a tour of the Sunti Sugar plant and farm covering about 17,000 hectares in Mokwa, Niger State, Coumantaros said the N64 billion of sugarcane. Currently, the two major sugar plants, Sunti and Savanah produce about 50,000 to 60,000 tons per year, while the Nigeria depends on importation to meet up with the deficit.
The FMN boss disclosed that the firm’s target is to develop the 17,000 hectares the farm is sits on in order to hit 100,000 to 150,000 tons per year sugar production.
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According to him, the sugar plant would create about 10,000 direct and 50,000 indirect jobs around the factory and would be spending N34 billion to support the host community over the next 10 years.
He said: “We will be spending about N34 billion over the next 10 years in support of the community and development of infrastructure in the area, this is very important, we have huge expenditure coming to the host community, creating jobs, education and building the economy in which people can make their livelihood.
“We will be having about 10,000 employees and another 50,000 indirect jobs around the area. We have already employed about 5000 people, we have got five community schools, we are working on putting electricity in the area and there is no future without development.
“This is revolutionising and dramatically changing not only the Mokwa community but Niger State because this is one of the biggest investments in the state in agriculture and industry,” he said.
Also speaking, the Chairman of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, expressed hope that Nigeria would attain self sufficiency in sugar production following the huge investment that has been recorded of late.
He, however said the challenge sugar production is facing currently is land and weather which he said if addressed would attract more investment to sugar production.
“Am very impressed, we are excited and we believe that in the next couple of years, we will be able to produce most of the sugar that we consume in Nigeria, what we are looking at is to see how we can do the same trajectory we had in cement to now transfer it to sugar, even though sugar is a little bit more difficult because you have to do with the weather, you have to do with the quality of the land, the irrigation, quite a lot of things that is not the same in cement.
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