Nigerians are said to have imported sugar worth N22.8 billion in three years, a situation described as hermorrhage on the country’s foreign exchange earnings.
Abiodun Olasupo (APC, Oyo), Chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee investigating the low concessionary tariff given by the Ministry of Trade and Investment for sugar importation into the country from 2013 to 2016 as contained in the backward integration policy reeled out this fact.
Olasupo, speaking Wednesday when Dr Abdullateef Busari, Executive Secretary of National Sugar Development Council, NSDC, said, “Within three years from 2009 to 2011, Nigeria expended a whopping sum of N228.8 billion on sugar importation.”
According to him, “The situation is hermorrhage on the country’s foreign exchange earnings and a loss of hundreds and thousands of employment opportunities for skilled and semi skilled labour and food insecurity arising from sugar importation dependence.”
He identified smuggling and the issues of land acquisition as some of the challenges that has affected sugar self-sufficiency in the country despite the adoption of concessionary tariff of five percent duty plus five percent levy to be charged on raw sugar importation by refineries for the first three years of NSMP implementation.
Earlier, Busari had blamed natural challenges faced by Dangote and Bua Sugar Refineries for failure to hit the 2017 target set for Sufficiency in the production of refined sugar in Nigeria.
It is expected that the three main benefiting companies namely- Dangote Sugar Refinery, BUA Sugar Refinery and the Golden Sugar Refinery would plough back the gains made to the tariff concession to develop the BIP projects.
Mr. Okechukwu Enalamah, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, however, failed to show up at the committee hearing or send a representative to state the Ministry’s position on the matter necessitated the chairman threatening to invoke section 88 of the constitution to summon the minister to appear before the committee or face a bench warrant on him.
