Nigeria is stepping up efforts to break its dependence on imported sugar, with the National Sugar Development Council (NSDC) rolling out a $1 billion investment plan designed to turn the country’s sugarcane industry into a major source of jobs, foreign exchange savings and industrial growth.

The new strategy combines fresh financing, tighter monitoring of import quotas and stronger support for local producers, with the NSDC setting an ambitious target of producing about two million metric tonnes of sugar locally.

The Council said the plan is being implemented under the Nigeria Sugar Master Plan 2.0 (NSMP 2.0), with a major component being a $1 billion Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC)-plus-finance partnership with China’s SINOMACH.

At the centre of the strategy is a simple economic argument: Nigeria already has a large market for sugar, but much of the money spent meeting that demand leaves the country.

According to the NSDC, Nigerians consume about 1.8 million metric tonnes of sugar annually, with roughly $1 billion spent on imports each year. The Council believes that capturing a larger share of that market locally could create thousands of jobs while boosting rural economies and reducing pressure on the country’s foreign exchange.

The Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of the NSDC, Kamar Bakrin, said the challenge was no longer about developing policies but ensuring that existing plans are properly executed.
“We don’t lack policy. What we have struggled with is world-class execution,” Bakrin said.

He made the remarks when he received members of the Abuja Chapter of the Chartered Institute of Directors (CIoD) at the Council’s headquarters in Abuja.

Bakrin said the Council was approaching the sugar industry as more than an agricultural project, describing sugarcane as the potential foundation for a wider industrial ecosystem.

“We have been blessed with a crop that is one of the most generous God has ever made. From sugarcane you can get sugar, you can get ethanol, you can get animal feed, you can produce power. Our job is to build a bio-industrial ecosystem around it, this is not just about producing a commodity,” he said.

Under the new approach, the NSDC is also tightening the rules governing sugar imports. Companies seeking import quotas will have to demonstrate genuine progress on local production, while major refiners will be expected to submit audited production commitments tied to the quotas they receive.

Companies that fail to meet their commitments could face consequences, as the Council seeks to move away from a system that relies heavily on companies reporting their own progress.

The NSDC said it would use satellite imagery alongside physical inspections to independently monitor sugar projects and verify whether investments and cultivation activities are actually taking place.

The Council believes stronger enforcement is necessary to ensure that import access translates into real investment in local production.

But financing remains another major piece of the puzzle. The NSDC said it had identified a shortage of bankable projects, rather than a shortage of money, as one of the biggest barriers preventing investment from flowing into the sector.

Its answer is a ₦10 billion Sugar Project Acceleration Fund, established in partnership with the Bank of Industry. The fund will support feasibility studies and project preparation, helping transform undeveloped sugar sites into projects that investors and financial institutions can actually fund.

Once projects are made investment-ready, they can potentially tap into the $1 billion EPC-plus-finance arrangement with SINOMACH, creating a link between project development, construction and long-term financing.

The Council is also engaging the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and working with the Nigeria Governors’ Forum to speed up the development of sugar estates across different parts of the country.

The strategy is not limited to large plantations. Smallholder farmers and host communities are expected to play a significant role through the Sugarcane Outgrower Development Programme.
Under NSMP 2.0, sugar estates will be required to allocate land to outgrowers and invest in their host communities through jobs, social amenities and physical infrastructure.

The aim is to ensure that the expansion of the sugar industry produces benefits beyond the factory gates, particularly for communities where the estates are located.

Bakrin pointed to Brazil as an example of how strong institutions can transform an agricultural commodity into a powerful industrial sector.

“Brazil did not win by planting better cane. They won by building institutions that compounded productivity for years, for decades.”

The NSDC chief said Nigeria’s own success would depend heavily on building institutions and processes that can deliver results consistently, regardless of changes in leadership.

To that end, the Council is developing standard operating procedures for key functions using Six Sigma methodology, which Bakrin said would help establish systems capable of surviving changes at the top.

“I hold a very strong conviction that the difference between the countries that industrialised and those that did not rarely has to do with the quality of their plants. It is the quality of their institutions.”

The Council is also looking to the private sector to strengthen governance within the emerging sugar industry. Bakrin urged the Chartered Institute of Directors to support efforts to improve corporate governance across sugar estates, processing plants and outgrower companies.

CIoD delegation leader Fatima Nana Mede commended the reforms and expressed the Institute’s willingness to work with the NSDC.

If successfully implemented, the Council’s strategy could change the economics of Nigeria’s sugar market—from one heavily dependent on imports to an industry capable of producing sugar while supplying ethanol, animal feed and electricity.

For the NSDC, the bigger opportunity is therefore not simply to produce enough sugar for Nigerians, but to use sugarcane as a springboard for a broader industrial economy and keep more of the estimated $1 billion currently spent on imports circulating within the country.