The Executive Secretary of the National Sugar Development Council (NSDC), Mr Kamar Bakrin, has sought the support and collaboration of the Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) in driving investments into the sugar industry.
Speaking in a meeting with the Executive Secretary of the NIPC on Friday, Mr Bakrin explained the mandate of the Council which revolves round the development of the sugar sector and the pursuit of self-sufficiency in sugar production.
The NSDC boss in a presentation he made at the session added that the National Sugar Masterplan (NSMP) Phase II whose implementation is crucial to the achievement of NSDC’s mandate requires a lot of local and foreign investments in the region of 3 billion dollars.
He emphasised that there is a need to attract new operators and investors into the sector in the areas of large scale commercial sugar farming, bulk water supply and irrigation, sugar processing factories, power generation, ethanol production and animal feed production.
While seeking the support of his NIPC counterpart in getting the investments into the sector, Mr Bakrin noted that the kind of investments that can stand the test of time and add value to the NSMP II implementation must be large in size, have patient capital and possess technical expertise.
Specifically, the NSDC helmsman proposed that the two agencies which are both under the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment can collaborate to “Develop Investment Theses and cutomised investment promotion package, “Identify investment targets,” and “Conduct investment roadshows.”
In her response, NIPC boss, Mrs Aisha Rimi, thanked her guests for the visit and for a brilliant presentation.
Mrs Rimi pledged the support of the Commission to the actualisation of NSDC’s mandate and the implementation of NSMP II.
She also asked a couple of questions about how the sugar industry works and the economic value of sugar bye products.
Talking about foreign investments, she noted that there had been a lot of focus on Brazil while Caribbean countries like Jamaica and Barbados have a lot to offer Nigeria’s sugar industry.
The NIPC boss concluded her response by saying that there would be some follow-up documents from her office to the NSDC to concretise the fruitful discussion that took place.
The Sugar Council boss was accompanied to the meeting by the Director, Technical Services, Alhaji Bala Ladan, the Special Assistant to the ES, Mr Teslim Bello, his Executive Assistant, Lade Offurum and his Technical Assistant, Mr Bolaji Tojola.
