The National Sugar Development Council (NSDC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Bank of Industry (BOI) to fill existing funding gaps in sugar project development in Nigeria.
Titled, “First Supplemental Managed Fund Agreement,” the MoU will enable the Bank manage and lead the operation of the Fund set up by NSDC to, among other things, finance pre-investment activities that affect sugar project development in the country.
According to the agreement “the Fund shall be used to finance enterprises engaged in sugar and sugar-related business, situated in any state in Nigeria, including the FCT; as well as for operating cost, capacity building, and infrastructural development.”
The agreement also stated that the Fund shall, among other things, be utilised for Feasibility Studies, Project Structure and Financial Advisory (including equity and debt capital raising), Environmental and Social Impact Assessments, Soil Surveys and Land Suitability Studies, Water Resources Studies, Topographic and Geological Surveys, Farm and Factory Designs, Basic Site Infrastructure and any other project development activities that may be approved by the Steering Committee.
Speaking at the signing ceremony in Abuja yesterday, the Executive Secretary of NSDC, Mr. Kamar Bakrin, said the development was significant in the sense that it would support the Council’s vision for acceleration this year.
“At the National Sugar Development Council (NSDC), we declared 2025 as our year of accelerated development for sugar project development. This is not an empty slogan. It is an extremely important thing for us because we recognise the fact that Nigeria currently spends about one billion dollars annually on the importation of sugar.
“This is a significant figure that can be saved with the attainment of self-sufficiency in sugar production. And this agreement we are here to sign today will go a long way in catalysing the attainment of full local production of sugar.
“The couple of things that we are looking to do in the sector, is to very rapidly increase the amount of land under cane, increase the amount of processing capacity of local sugar production, to attract a lot of more credible investors to the space. And what we are doing here today provides us a platform to be able to drive these key initiatives that we have laid out for the year. We are absolutely excited about working with BOI as we have a long-standing relationship which has worked very well so far. Therefore, we believe this is the beginning of a major thing that can also serve as a model for industrialisation for Nigeria,” the NSDC boss said.
On his part, the Managing Director of BOI, Dr. Olasupo Olusi, said the Bank is committed to ensuring that the sugar sector in Nigeria develops to its full potential, adding that the MoU would help reverse the over-reliance on importation and create jobs for Nigerians in the industry.
In the NSDC delegation were the Most Senior Director, Dr. Abiodun Adeyemo (Human Resource and General Services); the Head of Strategy and Performance Management, Ms. Edirin Akemu; the Head of ES Office, Mr. Teslim Bello; Head of Finance and Accounts, Madam Nowamagbe Uyigue-Adeosun; and the Head of Legal Unit, Hajiya Babamale Kudirat.