Federal Government bans importation of raw sugar!

Olusegun Aganga, Minister of Trade and Investments

Minister of Trade and Investments, Dr. Olusegun Aganga, Monday, said the Federal Government has concluded plans to ban the importation of raw sugar with effect from January 1, 2013.

Aganga who spoke at the Ministry of Trade & Investments’ second annual seminar for Industry Correspondents and Group Business Editors in Abuja said the proposed ban on all sugar in retail packages was part of the federal government’s National Sugar Master Plan. 


Currently, there are two major investors in sugar industry which are Dangote Sugar Refinery and Bua Sugar Refinery.

The minister noted that objectives of the National Sugar Master Plan include raising local sugar production to attain self sufficiency, stemming the tide of high level importation, creating of huge number of job opportunities, as well as contributing to the production of ethanol and generation of electricity.

He explained that currently 98% of brown sugar which are refined into white sugar is imported into the country from Brazil, adding: “All these are going to change next year as only investors who are committed to backward integration in the sugar sector will be given licence to import certain quotas into the country in order to augment local production.

“We want to replicate the success story of backward integration policy in the cement industry in the sugar industry. We won’t allow the importation of brown sugar again from 2013.”

Elaborating on the National Sugar Master Plan (NSMP), the Executive Secretary, National Sugar Development Council, Abuja, Dr. Latif Busari, emphasised that the council would adopt high graduated tariff structure on sugar importation, mandatory backward integration programme for refineries, provision of investors-specific incentives to discourage importation of raw brown sugar and attract investors into the sector.

He listed other strategies to include regulation of the entire regime of sugar importation through quota allocation benchmark on local; production, robust monitoring and evaluation framework to ensure compliance with milestones and time-lines and enlargement of the sugarcane value chain players.