The Federal Government has unveiled new plans to revitalise Nigeria’s sugar value chain, reduce dependence on imports, and create employment opportunities through strategic public-private partnerships. The initiative, announced during a meeting in Abuja between the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and Niger Foods Security Systems and Logistics Company Limited, is anchored on the National Sugar Master Plan and forms part of the government’s Renewed Hope Agenda for food and nutrition security.
Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, said the government is committed to working with credible investors to expand sugarcane cultivation, enhance local processing capacity, and attract both domestic and foreign investment into the sector. He noted that collaboration with the National Sugar Development Council and other key stakeholders will be central to unlocking opportunities across the sugar value chain.
Minister of State for Agriculture, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, added that reviving the sugar sub-sector would significantly boost employment, especially for women and young farmers, while also strengthening Nigeria’s agro-industrial base.
Highlighting the scale of private sector involvement, executive chairman of Niger Foods, Sammy Adigun, revealed that the company has secured 250,000 hectares of land in Niger State dedicated to sugarcane production. He said the project would require around $3 billion in sugar plant investments and aims to cultivate 50,000 hectares with an annual output of 2 million tonnes of sugarcane.
Adigun disclosed that Niger Foods had already produced 60,000 tonnes of sugarcane from just three hectares last year, demonstrating the potential for large-scale production if supported by enabling government policies and infrastructure.
Niger Foods Security Systems and Logistics Company Ltd, partly owned by the Niger State Government, operates under a public–private partnership model focused on boosting agricultural productivity and promoting food security. The new sugar initiative is expected to reduce Nigeria’s heavy reliance on sugar imports, strengthen the local value chain, and create thousands of jobs across farming, processing, and logistics offering new opportunities for SMEs in agro-processing and related sectors.
