• Nigeria’s sugar regulator partnered with state governors to attract industrial investment into the sector.

• Local sugar output reached only 70,000 tons versus a target of 1.79 million tons under the first national plan.

• Nigeria imported sugar worth about 914.79 billion nairas ($655.8 million) in 2024, highlighting strong dependence on foreign supply.

Nigeria’s National Sugar Development Council (NSDC) entered a partnership with the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), a coordination platform that brings together governors of the country’s 36 states, to promote sugar investments. NSDC Executive Secretary Kamar Bakrin disclosed the initiative on February 1, 2026.

According to local media, the NGF secretariat will include sugar projects among priority beneficiaries in its engagements with development partners in Nigeria and abroad. “This partnership will help states prepare and structure investor-ready sugar projects. It will facilitate structured engagements between state governments, investors and industrial operators. It will also improve coordination around critical enablers such as land access, infrastructure provision and incentive frameworks,” Bakrin said, as quoted by local daily Vanguard.

This move signals a push to create a more enabling environment to strengthen the attractiveness of Nigeria’s sugar sector and to accelerate its industrialization.

A Local Industry That Has Struggled to Develop

This initiative comes as the regulator continues to fall short of its sugar self-sufficiency target announced with the launch of the National Sugar Master Plan (NSMP) in 2012. The first phase of the plan ended in 2020 and delivered weak results. During that period, Nigeria produced only 70,000 tons of raw sugar, against a target of 1.79 million tons.

Industry stakeholders cited several factors behind the slow progress. They pointed to inadequate infrastructure, high transport and production costs, and limited access to financing. They also highlighted low farm productivity, the absence of adapted sugarcane varietal research, and insecurity in some producing areas, which discouraged investment.

In a 2021 market analysis, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said policy implementation suffered from administrative delays and weak institutional coordination. The USDA added that “established interests in refining” favored raw sugar imports over local production.

Against this backdrop, the government launched the second phase of the NSMP in 2023 for a ten-year period. The authorities renewed the self-sufficiency objective and introduced a framework designed to address obstacles facing industrial development. Since then, investment projects have multiplied.

An Industrial Expansion Takes Shape

The sector has attracted renewed interest through new public-private partnerships aimed at closing the processing gap. In August 2025, the NSDC signed agreements with four Nigerian sugar companies in Oyo, Niger, Adamawa and Bauchi states. These projects aim to produce a combined 400,000 tons of sugar per year, or 100,000 tons per industrial site.

Earlier in April, the NSDC signed a memorandum of understanding with Chinese conglomerate SINOMACH to develop a sugar complex. The project carries a total cost of $1 billion. The first phase targets annual output of 100,000 tons, while the final objective aims at 1 million tons per year.

Before that, the Niger State government signed a memorandum of understanding in November 2024 with four local and foreign companies to build six sugar factories. Four of the plants will sit between Shiroro and Minna on a 148,000-hectare estate scheduled for development by 2027. In this revival context, the partnership between the NSDC and the governors’ forum could accelerate industrialization if it translates into concrete action and attracts new domestic or foreign investors.

Beyond the four states already hosting sugar projects, authorities identified seven additional priority states—Kwara, Nasarawa, Kaduna, Kano, Gombe, Jigawa and Taraba—with land suitable for profitable sugarcane production. In its latest Nigeria market report published in 2024, the USDA estimated that potentially arable land for sugar production exceeds 800,000 hectares, while Nigeria currently exploits only 130,000 hectares, or about 16% of its potential.

Until these projects materialize, Nigeria remains heavily dependent on imports to meet domestic sugar demand. Data compiled by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that Africa’s most populous country imported sugar worth about 914.79 billion nairas, equivalent to roughly $655.8 million, in 2024.

This article was initially published in French by Stéphanas Assocle

Adapted in English by Ange J.A de BERRY QUENUM