The Executive Secretary/CEO of the National Sugar Development Council, Mr. Kamar Bakrin, has assured stakeholders of the council’s commitment to removing obstacles hampering local sugar production in Nigeria.
Bakrin made this known during a tripartite meeting involving the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, the NSDC, and major operators in the Backward Integration Programme, chaired by the Minister of State, Senator John Owan Enoh.
According to Bakrin, via a statement made available to PUNCH Online on Thursday, the NSDC under his leadership has stepped up performance monitoring of BIP operators beyond the traditional efforts of the Sugar Industry Monitoring Group, stating that the Council has focused on “robust, one-on-one, physical and virtual engagement with the operators, giving them targets and following up on deliverables.”
He highlighted several concerns raised by operators, including loopholes in the Free Trade Zone (FTZ) regime, equipment clearing delays at ports, sugar smuggling, and resistance from host communities.
“The operators have complained about the existing loopholes in the free trade zone regime, which they believe certain participants in the NSMP have exploited.
”They also cited delays in the clearing of equipment at the ports, smuggling of sugar into the country, and host community resistance to the expansion of their BIP programmes as the primary causes of the delays in their BIP execution,” Bakrin said.
He assured that the loopholes in the FTZ regime were being addressed through the ongoing amendment of the NSDC Act by the National Assembly, adding that this process includes engagement with the relevant committees and stakeholders.
On other issues, Bakrin said, “The delays in the clearing of equipment at the ports is something that is also being addressed with the Nigeria Customs Service. On the issue of smuggling, the volumes do not significantly alter the economics of sugar production and the market dynamics. But regardless, we have engaged the relevant security agencies on the matter.”
He also noted that the council has made progress in resolving disputes with host communities.
“The council consistently intervenes and has actually driven the resolution of these grievances, especially the more significant ones that have been experienced in places like Numan in Adamawa State.
“At the moment, there is currently no backward integration programme in which the host community has restricted access to a significant proportion of land in the country,” he said.
Bakrin revealed that the council is working on securing financing to support the industry and help existing operators reduce irrigation costs. “One of the things we need to do is aggressively push a sugar sector development fund, as well as secure the kind of guarantees that will allow the cost of borrowing to come down,” he said.
He stressed the importance of improving performance, warning that underperformance would attract serious consequences.
“Operators must act immediately to stop the deterioration in the output of their current operations, especially around the issues of agronomic and factory practices, which are clearly below global norms and standards.
“They must also actively expand their existing brownfield operations,” he said.
Bakrin added, “Basic improvements in agronomics and factory practices can take annual raw sugar production to 200,000 metric tonnes in the short term even from the current land planted with sugarcane.”
He argued that while raw sugar importation and refining may seem profitable in the short term, cultivating and processing sugarcane locally is more sustainable and beneficial in the long run.
In his remarks, Enoh noted that going forward, the allocation of raw sugar importation quotas would be performance-based. He assured that the ministry would intensify its oversight of BIP operators to ensure compliance with the objectives of the National Sugar Master Plan.
