The Nationwide Sugar Improvement Council has entered right into a financing partnership with the Nigerian Export-Import {Bank} aimed toward unlocking large-scale funding for Nigeria’s sugar business and lowering the nation’s dependence on imports.
The collaboration, reached after talks between each organisations in Abuja, is designed to offer long-term funding assist for sugar initiatives via a structured Engineering, Procurement, Building plus Financing mannequin.
Beneath the association, the NSDC will determine and put together bankable initiatives aligned with nationwide coverage targets, whereas additionally supporting fairness mobilisation.
NEXIM {Bank} is anticipated to guide capital elevating efforts by connecting initiatives with worldwide Export Credit score Companies, coordinating with growth finance establishments, facilitating overseas enter financing, and providing ensures and threat safety instruments.
Main the NSDC delegation, Govt Secretary and Chief Govt Officer, Kamar Bakrin, highlighted the dimensions of alternatives inside Nigeria and throughout Africa’s sugar market, describing the sector as ripe for important funding.
“Nigeria can not obtain self-sufficiency in sugar production on short-term capital,” Bakrin stated. “What the sector requires is affected person, long-tenor financing deployed at scale and backed by coverage certainty. By partnering with NEXIM {Bank} and worldwide export credit score companions, we’re setting up a financing structure that permits critical buyers to execute, not speculate.”
He famous that Nigeria’s sugar market is estimated at about $2 billion, whereas Africa’s broader market is valued at roughly $7 billion. By-products linked to sugar production are additionally projected to exceed $10 billion domestically.
Bakrin stated Nigeria might competitively provide each native and regional demand, notably beneath the African Continental Free Commerce Space framework, if enough long-term financing is made accessible to increase sugarcane farming and industrial processing.
Based on him, the EPC+F funding construction has already proven promise via an current Bargain with Chinese language conglomerate SINOMACH. That partnership has secured financing of as much as $1 billion on the Secured In a single day Financing Fee plus three per cent, with a 15-year reimbursement interval and a three-year grace window to fast-track initiatives.
The initiative is anticipated to chop import prices by saving round $300 million yearly in overseas change, generate greater than 50,000 jobs throughout the worth chain, and obtain as much as 25 per cent import substitution inside 5 to 10 years.
Bakrin additionally outlined measures launched to make the sector extra engaging to buyers, together with strikes to strengthen the authorized backing of the Nigeria Sugar Grasp Plan via amendments to the NSDC Act to make sure coverage stability and defend investments. He added that enforcement actions are underway to curb smuggling and different practices that undermine native production.
He stated initiatives would combine smallholder farmers via outgrower programmes whereas supporting host communities with employment, expertise growth and infrastructure investments.
Environmental sustainability, he famous, stays central to the technique, with sugarcane serving as a renewable useful resource that contributes to cleaner vitality options.
“The sector helps value-added renewable co-products reminiscent of ethanol and bioelectricity, contributing to local weather and energy-transition objectives. NSDC promotes environmentally accountable production fashions and sustainable land-use practices, alongside inclusive group and outgrower participation, positioning initiatives to draw climate-aligned and development-oriented capital.
“Sugar initiatives are anchored on credible operators with confirmed technical and {financial} capability, with group acceptance and land entry handled as gating standards at early levels of growth to boost execution certainty and long-term bankability,” he unhappy.
Responding, NEXIM {Bank}’s Managing Director, Abba Bello, described the partnership as well timed, noting the business’s potential to drive {economic} diversification and increase exports. He stated the {bank} is able to assist financing frameworks that strengthen native production and increase Nigeria’s place in regional and international markets.
Bello additionally praised the council’s structured method and reiterated the {bank}’s readiness to again initiatives that promote exports and scale back imports whereas aligning with nationwide growth objectives.