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Nigeria will launch the second phase of its National Sugar Plan next January. A phase which aims to ensure the self-sufficiency of the West African giant within ten years. But the first phase did not yield the expected results.
Ten-year plans are a bit like hope: they give life even if you are not sure of the outcome. Nigeria learned this the hard way with the first phase of its ten-year sugar plan, which was supposed to reorganize the production and processing sectors.
If since 2013, the country has indeed acquired significant sugar refining capacity, on the other hand, the production component has not given the expected results. The country produces only 70,000 tons of raw sugar while consuming 25 times more. As a result, Abuja imports 1.8 million tonnes each year, mainly from Brazil, for a bill approaching 350 million dollars.
Insufficient measures?
The addition is salty, and the Nigerian authorities hope that at the end of the second phase of the sugar plan, in 2033, production will finally have taken off. Large refiners who benefit from tax incentives are asked in exchange to produce more in the country. But there is no guarantee that this will be enough, because investments in sugar cane are expensive, land issues are difficult to manage, and refining capacities, which often condition investment decisions in plantations, are already largely in surplus. .
In addition, the Central Bank’s policy which strictly limits foreign exchange outflows, prevents farmers from buying advanced equipment. Although Nigeria has given itself ten more years to achieve self-sufficiency in sugar, the goal seems out of reach. Sweet dreams often precede bitter awakenings.
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