Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) has provided $200 million towards self-sufficiency in Nigeria’s sugar sector.
This is in the form of corporate facility for infrastructure company BUA Industries.
The company, headquartered in Lagos, will use the funding to develop, construct, commission and operate a sugar facility in Lafiagi, in Kwara State.
The site is designed to cover a 20,000-hectare plantation and refine 200,000 tons of sugar per annum, as well as 25 million litres of ethanol, while excess energy will be exported to the national grid.
AFC president and chief executive Samaila Zubairu described it as a “landmark project which will significantly reduce Nigeria’s sugar import bills, currently estimated at over $400 million per annum”.
He added that “the project should over its useful life reduce Nigeria’s sugar import bills by approximately $2 billion and create about 15,000 direct and indirect jobs that will accelerate development impact in the economy”.
BUA founder and executive chairman Abdul Samad Rabiu said: “Upon completion, the project will utilise best-in-class processing technology and clean renewable energy through the treatment and recycling of effluents, agricultural waste, and solid waste.”
“The project will go a long way towards solving Nigeria’s current dependence on imported sugar raws by utilising homegrown processed cane sugar and through our integrated outgrowers initiative substantially reduce unemployment in the community,” he claimed.
