Consumer goods maker, Flour Mills of Nigeria (FMN) has been praised by the minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Niyi Adebayo, on the size of its investment and the company’s performance under the Nigeria Sugar Master Plan (NSMP).
The minister on a recent working visit to the various sugar backward integration programmes in the country commended FMN for its commitment towards Nigeria’s sugar self-sufficiency
“I am quite impressed with the level of investment and planning that has gone into this enterprise, also because of the number of people that are employed here,” said Adebayo. “Efforts like these go a long way in reducing the number of unemployed Nigerians”
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The Sunti Golden Sugar Estates, owned by FMN’s Golden Sugar Company, is Nigeria’s only Greenfield Sugar investment under the Sugar Masterplan currently producing raw sugar.
Since the implementation of the Sugar Masterplan, the Golden Sugar Company (a subsidiary of Flour Mills PLC) has invested heavily and productively towards the goal of helping Nigeria achieve self-sufficiency in sugar production.
In a bid to promote local production of sugar, among other things, the Federal Executive Council had in 2012 approved the Nigeria Sugar Master Plan (NSMP), the implementation of which commenced in January 2013.
Under the NSMP, Nigeria planned to attract over $1billion in both local and foreign direct investments into the agro-allied sector and create over 107, 000 direct jobs locally within the initial 10 years of the plan.
When the National Sugar Development Council (NSDC) carried out its midterm review of the Sugar Industry Backward Integration Program (BIP) in 2017, the council scored Flour Mills’ Golden Sugar Company highest at 58 percent in terms of the efforts made to achieve its commitments under the NSMP.
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Dangote Sugar Refineries and BUA Sugar Refineries scored 46 percent and 17 percent respectively. The NSDC based its performance evaluation on the following criteria: available land to grow and harvest sugarcane, Land Development – irrigation, dykes etc, investment amount in mill processing, community development, job creation and volume of sugar produced.
“We are the most productive BIP, as adjudged by the National Sugar Development Council (NSDC). As you are aware, Honorable Minister, Sunti Golden Sugar Estates was rated the best performing Sugar BIP under the NSMP with a score of 58 percent,” said John Coumantaros, Chairman of FMN.
The NSDC had stated in its 2017 midterm review that flooding and communal clashes may have been factors responsible low performance of some of the BIP operators.
FMN however overcame the challenges due to its investments in flood protection dykes and the provision of a wide range of infrastructure for its host communities including a 398km network of roads servicing 28 communities.
