Sen. Nenadi Usman, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Investment on Monday expressed optimism that the National Assembly would soon pass the Nigerian Sugar Master Plan (NSMP) bill.
Usman disclosed this in Abuja at a one-day stakeholders’ interactive forum and the unveiling of the NSMP.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the Federal Executive Council had in September approved the NSMP as well as a regime of fiscal and investment incentives to boost sugar production.
Usman said the bill, when passed into law, would ensure the smooth implementation of the new NSMP.
“The bill is to strengthen the implementation of the policy, to give it a legal backing and some push so that people will not just think they can just do anything and get away with it.
“The bill has gone through the first reading, waiting for the second reading which will protect all the stakeholders, especially the consumers and the manufacturers.
“It is criminal for anyone to be given all the fiscal protection needed just for them to be able to import and keep refining raw sugar at the detriment of having out growers in the farm that should be growing sugarcane,’’.
Usman, who was also a former Minister of Finance, urged sabotours to stay away from the NSMP, adding that it would no longer be business as usual.
In his remarks, Dr Olusegun Aganga, Minister of Trade and Investment, said with the implementation of the NSMP, 411.7 additional mega watts of electricity would be generated from sugar production by 2020.
According to him, the implementation of the NSMP will also make Nigeria to be among the top ten sugar exporters in the world.
The minister said apart from the country being self sufficient in sugar production which would bring an end to the importation of sugar, the successful implementation of the policy would create about 117 million jobs.
“The implementation of the sugar master plan will lead to the production of 161.1 million litres of ethanol which will save the country about $65.8 million on fuel importation.’’
Aganga noted with concern the over dependence on importation of sugar which, he said, had affected the economy negatively, adding that government had put in place measures to encourage local production.
“In order to both stimulate and protect local investment in the sugar sub-sector, a new regime of fiscal tariff has been approved to take effect from January 1, 2013.
“The measures include the approval of high fiscal tariff structure which is deliberately skewed against importation and to prevent dumping of cheap sugar and perfect the infant industry.’’
The minister said the tariff would take cognisance of the little value addition by refiners who import and refine sugar.
According to him, the Federal Government has also provided incentives for investors in the sector.
The incentives included zero per cent on machinery and spare parts for local sugar manufacturing industries, five years tax holiday for ‘sugarcane to sugar’ value-chains and investors in local sugar manufacturing industries.
The incentive included an outright ban on the importation of refined sugar in retail packs among others.
Aganga said the incentives would also lead to 30 per cent tax credit on the cost of provision of critical infrastructure by sugarcane to sugar project investors.
The minister urged the stakeholders to ensure that their deliberations complemented government’s efforts in stabilising the sugar sector.
The Executive Secretary, National Sugar Development Council (NSDC), Dr Lateef Busari, who? presented the NSMP to the stakeholders, said its implementation was a golden opportunity to boost the country’s economy.
“The roadmap is a ten-year plan that intends to see Nigeria from producing the two per cent sugar consumption to self sufficiency and to have some? excess.
“The roadmap should be able to produce 1.79 metric tonnes of sugar over the next ten years with some other collateral advantages embedded in it.
“The NSMP will provide lots of jobs apart from reducing the burden of capital flight through the importation of sugar.’’
Chief Kola Jamodu, President, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), said the presentation of the NSMP to stakeholders would enable manufacturers to have a better understanding of how to implement it successfully.
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