Nigeria needs 250,000 ha of land to end sugar importation
The Federal Government has disclosed that for Nigeria to meet its sugar sufficiency and stop the importation of 1.7 million tonnes of raw sugar annually, Nigeria will need to develop about 250,000 hectares of lands
It is reported by New Telegraphng.
Already, the country has an annual demand of 1.75 mln tonnes of sugar for industrial and domestic use.
Government also added that for the country to achieve self-sufficiency in sugar refining, it must have an installed capacity of three million metric tonnes, while it is still currently importing about 1.7 mln tonnes of raw sugar to feed the refineries.
Speaking on the implementation of the Nigerian Sugar Masterplan (NSMP) adopted as government’s strategic road map to facilitate the efficiency of self-sufficiency in sugar production, the industry minister said that it would also produce 1.8MMT of raw sugar, 411.7MW of electricity, 161.2M litres of ethanol and 1.6MMT of animals feeds annually.