Sugar imports surge 328% as local production stalls

Sugar imports surge 328% as local production stalls

August 11, 2025 — By Elisha, PulseDaily

Nigeria’s long-term drive to wean the country off sugar imports has stalled, with import bills ballooning and local output remaining a fraction of national demand, industry data and farmers say.

New figures show sugar importation climbed sharply — by about 328% — over the five-year period from 2020 to 2024. Spending on imported sugar reached ₦2.21 trillion between 2020 and 2024, up from ₦516.61 billion in the five years to 2019, according to National Bureau of Statistics data cited by industry analysts.

The National Sugar Development Council (NSDC) says domestic production currently sits at roughly 40,000 metric tonnes annually, while national demand is estimated at 1.7 million tonnes — a shortfall of about 97%. That gap has barely improved since 2010, when the original National Sugar Master Plan (NSMP) was launched and local output was about 30,000 tonnes against an annual demand of more than 1.4 million tonnes.

The NSMP, first introduced in 2010 and refreshed in 2020, set out an ambitious backward-integration strategy. It aimed to build roughly 28 sugar factories and bring about 250,000 hectares into cane cultivation within a decade, relying largely on private investment and the requirement that import licensees fund local production projects.

But despite the entry of major private players — including firms such as Dangote Sugar, BUA Foods and Flour Mills — the programme has yet to reverse rising imports. Instead, import volumes and expenditure have continued to climb.

The federal government has launched a second phase of the NSMP to try to correct course. NSDC Executive Secretary Kamar Bakrin told industry leaders in Abuja that NSMP II targets at least 2 million tonnes of sugar production, 400 MW of power generation from sugar projects, and creation of 110,000 jobs across the value chain. The plan will require 200,000–250,000 hectares of suitable land and an estimated $3.5 billion in investment, he said, adding that a monitoring framework with milestones will be put in place to drive accountability.

On the ground, however, many smallholder sugarcane farmers say they have been left out of policy design and support programmes. Field visits and interviews with growers in Kaduna and other farming areas reveal widespread ignorance of the NSMP and persistent challenges: lack of improved seedlings, pesticides, irrigation, formal off-takers and access to finance or insurance.

Musa Uba, a smallholder along the Abuja–Kaduna road, said farmers sell cane bundles to middlemen for between ₦8,000–₦10,000 depending on size, and often lack access to inputs or training. Thomas Sule from Makarfi LGA said his group has seen no intervention from state or federal governments and that many processors prefer imported sugar to locally grown cane.

Farmers described erratic prices, pest problems (notably termites), poor irrigation, absence of market linkages and lack of capacity building. “We have land and labour, but no organised market or funding to scale production,” one farmer said, urging government and private sector partnerships to establish local refineries closer to production areas.  Agribusiness operators that work with local farmers say the resource base exists to expand domestic sugar production significantly, but stressed that support must reach smallholders. Sandra Victor-Gwafan, CEO of DeBranch Farmers Limited, said many growers struggle despite large untapped potential and that targeted investments in inputs, processing capacity and market access could transform Nigeria from a net importer to an exporter over time.

NSMP II’s success will hinge on unlocking private finance, aggregating smallholders into reliable supply chains, and delivering technical and infrastructural support at scale. For now, rising import bills and persistent production shortfalls underline how far the sector remains from the self-sufficiency goals first promised more than a decade ago.