Federal Government on Wednesday disclosed that it granted tariff concession worth N329.172 billion to the three sugar refineries operating in the country between 2013 and 2017.
Abdullateef Busari, Executive Secretary, National Sugar Development Council (NSDC) disclosed this during an investigate public hearing into the ‘low concessionary tariff given by Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment for sugar importation into the country from 2013 to 2016 as contained in the Backward Integration Policy (BIP), held at the instance of the House of Representatives.
According to the document seen by BusinessDay, Dangote Sugar Refinery led the investment into the BIP chart with total sum of N121.243 billion, followed by BUA Sugar refinery with the sum of N38.827 billion while Golden Sugar Refinery invested N51.657 billion within the period under review.
Busari who expressed displeasure over the activities of smugglers of sugar, noted that the “whole idea behind this high tariff structure was to discourage sugar importation and to make sugar produced within the country, price competitive when compared with sugar imported at the high tariff.”
He further observed that “such high smuggling would have effectively killed any attempt at developing a local sugar production capability, for the incentive to produce locally would have been effectively removed.”
He however blamed the inability of Nigeria to attain self-sufficiency in sugar production by 2017, on the natural challenges such as smuggling, access to land exacerbated by elite interference, community hostility to sugar projects, incessant flooding events, impact of economic recession in 2016, among others.
Busari who expressed optimism in achieving the set objectives disclosed that “the three refineries have achieved various levels of development in this regard but the overall performance rating as revealed in the MTRM held in June, 2017 revealed a figure of 48% below average. This was so due to factors not purely the fault of the operators, but those bothering on the economic and socio-cultural situation of the country.”
In his speech, Abiodun Olasupo, who alleged that said “within three years from 2009 and 2011, Nigeria expended a whopping sum of N228.8 billion on sugar importation,” described the development as an hemorrhage 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.
KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja
