The Federal Government’s efforts to tackle unemployment and rural insecurity have received a strategic boost, as the National Sugar Development Council (NSDC) revealed that a fully-developed domestic sugar sector can generate one million jobs and eliminate the root causes of rural unrest.
The Executive Secretary, NSDC, Mr. Kamar Bakrin, made this known during a strategic high-level meeting with the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Mr. Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, at the Customs Headquarters in Abuja.
According to Bakrin, the full implementation of the Nigeria Sugar Master Plan (NSMP II) will convert over $1 billion currently spent annually on sugar imports into domestic investments. This capital flight reversal is projected to create 250,000 direct jobs and 750,000 indirect jobs across the value chain, primarily spanning 12 states.
Crushing Insecurity Through Rural Jobs
The NSDC boss emphasized that the sugar industry holds a unique advantage because its employment opportunities are strictly rural, targeting vulnerable youths who might otherwise be susceptible to criminal activities and social unrest.
”When you have sugar projects, you don’t have unrest or any security challenge because you create so many jobs for the youths,” Bakrin stated, linking direct rural industrialization to the reinforcement of national security.
He further disclosed that Nigeria possesses over one million hectares of tested, suitable land for sugar cultivation, noting that the country needs only about 200,000 hectares to achieve complete sugar self-sufficiency.
Boosting the National Grid
Beyond job creation and security, Bakrin highlighted the energy potential of modern sugar estates, explaining that they are designed to operate independently of the national grid via co-generation.
The estates consume only about 50 percent of the energy they produce, leaving an excess of 400 megawatts (MW) available to be injected into the national grid—an amount sufficient to power a small modern city.
Customs-NSDC Alliance to Protect Investments
To secure these multi-billion dollar investments, the NSDC and the Nigeria Customs Service finalized a collaborative framework to eliminate operational bottlenecks and protect domestic investors through predictable policy enforcement.
The two agencies agreed to cooperate across five priority areas:
Market Stability: Ensuring a balanced domestic market.
Data Sharing: Providing real-time information on sugar import volumes and importer identities.
Quota Enforcement: Strict continuous enforcement of approved import quotas.
Fiscal Incentives: Directing duty waivers and differentiated tariffs exclusively to eligible, verified operators, alongside the fast-tracked clearance of machinery.
Anti-Smuggling: Establishing a joint intelligence and enforcement team to combat illicit sugar imports.
Responding, the Comptroller-General of Customs, Mr. Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, affirmed the Service’s full support for the sugar transformation agenda, noting that its capacity for job creation, energy generation, and rural development aligns directly with Nigeria’s economic and security priorities.
To ensure sustained progress, the two agencies resolved to hold periodic review meetings to assess implementation and jointly brief President Bola Tinubu on the sector’s developments.
