Picture R-L: Minister of State for Industry, Senator John Owan Enoh, the Executive Secretary of the National Sugar Development Council (NSDC), Kamar Bakrin, and NSDC’s Head of Strategy and Performance Management (SPM), Edirin Akemu (L), during the public hearing on the amendment of the Council’s Establishment Act organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Industry.
“Redirecting 50 percent of the raw sugar import levy into the government’s Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) could derail the sugar industry’s transformation progress .”
Kamar Bakrin, the Executive Secretary/CEO of the National Sugar Development Council, expressed this concerns during a public hearing organised by the House of Representative Committee on Industry.
Under the first phase of the National Sugar Master Plan, the government introduced 5 percent levy on raw sugar import for local processing by the Dangote Sugar Refinery, BUA Sugar Refinery and Golden Sugar, Company(GSC in Sunti, Niger State) , a subsidiary of Flour Mills of Nigeria.
The needs to channel half of the fund into the CRF came up during a recent Federal Executive Council’s meeting.
The government mandated that 50 percent of the sugar industry levy be paid into the consolidated revenue fund.
However, Bakrin cautioned against such a move.
“The sugar levy was specifically introduced to fund the development of the sector, unlike import duties. Redirecting those funds could derail the country’s industrial ambitions,” he warned.
He emphasized that the transformative goals of the Sugar Master plan—chief among them the creation of 100,000 high-quality jobs, development of rural infrastructure, and savings of over $1 billion in foreign exchange annually.
“To realize this vision, we require $4.5 billion in investments, which the Council is actively working to attract. Investor confidence is critical, and that confidence hinges on transparent, rule-based policies.”
The public hearing attracted major stakeholders, including representatives from the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), BUA Group, Flour Mills of Nigeria, and the Abuja-based consultancy NINA-JOJER.
