The Executive Secretary, NSDC, Dr. Latif Busari, who revealed this yesterday in Abuja at the round table with Commerce and Industry Cor- respondents Association of Nigeria (CICAN), said the council was working to en- sure that it boosts local production of sugar.
According to the NSDC boss, the Master Plan, when fully operational, will generate 400mw even as he said that over N400 million would be saved annually from sugar importation, while “over 114,000 jobs will be created across the country.”
Busari further said that the current high tariff imposed on imported sugar was to discourage its importation, adding that part of efforts to also discourage importation of sugar was to sign a Backward Integration Agreement (BIA) with the four refineries that will enable them set up their various farms. The NSMP had pegged tariff for imported sugar at 5 per cent duty and 70 per cent levy. He noted that the three-year con- cessionary agreement signed with sugar refineries in Nigeria in 2013 will enable them import raw materials for the production of sugar into the country at 5 per cent duty and 5 per cent levy. The concessionary tariff agreement is ex- pected to expire in December 2015.
“Guinness had approached us to enable them import a specific type of sugar, which is not produced in Nigeria but we told them, ‘you will have to import through one of the companies that signed the backward integration with us.” He said the money saved can be invested in the production process.
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