In furtherance of initiatives that leverage the food security emergency declared by President Bola Ahmed’s Tinubuadministration last year, Niger Foods in partnership with the Nigeria Sugar Development Council has made another bold step to revive the USD2.5B Nigeria Sugar Industry in Nigeria and thereby promote food Security and rural Industrialisation.

During a side event of the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Niger Food signed a deal with Uttam Sucrotech (a consortium composed of leading Brazil and India Sugar Value Chain experts) to develop 250,000 Hectares of Sugarcane fields and 6 Sugar/Ethanol plants in Niger State over the next 3 years.

Although Nigeria, Brazil, and India were in the 1960s developing the sugarcane culture, according to the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Sugar Council, Mr. Kamar Bakrin, the Nigeria Sugar Industry has since stagnated with the area cultivated being less than 20,000Ha producing about 540,000 MT (about 3% of Nigeria current Sugar demand) compared to Brazil’s and India’s production of 41mMT and 36mMT.

The Niger Farms project which will harness about 90,000 Hectares on the shoulder of the recently flagged off Sokoto – Lagos Super Highway will produce 2.5mMT of Sugar, 250mlitres of Ethanol, and generate 300 MW of Electricity. It will also create 100,000 direct Jobs, and 250,000 Indirect Jobs aside from the projected 750,000 Outgrower Participants.

Speaking at the event, the Minister for Foreign Affairs praised the Niger State Government for its private sector approach to the development of Agriculture through the creation of Niger Foods and also for the strategic choice of the 2 leading Sugar producers in the world with a specialty for large scale cultivation (Brazil) and structured small scale out-grower program (India). He also praised the strategic choice of coupling research and innovation to the development of the farms. The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security expressed the support of the Ministry to Niger State in the quest for Large scale mechanized and integrated Agriculture. He said the development of the Sugar value chain will give birth to a vibrant livestock industry in Niger State and the mixed cropping of sugar with Soybean will ensure the massive foreign earning.

In his speech at the event, the Governor of Niger State His Excellency Muhammed Bago thanked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the unprecedented initiative for the development of Nigeria socio-economically including the Super Highways. He said the component that Super Highways that pass through the State will open 90,000 Ha of Arable land which will be part of the field to be used in the Sugar project.