The federal government has established a $73 million intervention fund to help develop Nigeria’s sugar sector infrastructure.
The minister of industry, Niyi Adebayo, made the announcement on Monday in Abuja at the formal commissioning of the sugar infrastructure intervention programme titled “Presidential Intervention on Irrigation Infrastructure to Accelerate Sugar Backward Integration Programme Projects.”
Speaking at the event, Adebayo, who represented President Muhammadu Buhari, stated that the intervention fund is intended to help operators of the sugar backward intervention programme develop irrigation facilities on 10,000 hectares of sugar plantation.
“I represented the President this morning at the formal commissioning of the Presidential project on irrigation infrastructure,” Adebayo said. “The intervention is the establishment of a $73 million irrigation intervention fund for sugar backward intervention program operators.”
“The goal is to support the development of irrigation infrastructure on 10,000 hectares of sugar plantations in Numan, Adamawa State, Sumti, Niger State, Lafiagi, Kwara State, Bacita, Kwara State, and Toto and Tunga, both in Nasarawa State.”
Adebayo stated that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) would provide the project with the necessary funding.
“The Central Bank of Nigeria is also involved in providing the necessary funding for the project,” he added.
According to the minister, the program’s goal is to increase Nigeria’s sugar yield in order for the country to become a self-sustaining producer of sugar.
“The goal is to significantly increase sugar yield so that we can work within the master plan of the National Sugar Development Plan, with the goal of Nigeria becoming self-sufficient in sugar production and possibly becoming a net exporter of sugar, thus saving the country a large amount of money.”
