Governor Mohammed Bago of Niger State | File Image
By Mohammed Usman
Niger State government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), with three companies –Uttham Sucrotech International, Rite Foods Limited, Legacy Sugar Company Limited – for the mass cultivation of sugarcane and production of sugar.
The Governor of Niger State, Mohammed Umar Bago, signed for the state government-owned Niger Foods on Monday.
The pact is for a three-year cultivation of 148, 000 hectares of land to provide basic rawmaterial to feed six sugar companies to be established in the state, and four to be located between Shiroro and Minna, the state capital.
The Special Adviser to the Governor on Digital Media and Strategy, Abdullberqy Usman Ebbo, who confirmed that the MoU was signed at Government House Minna, described it as a giant leap towards achieving agricultural revolution of the Bago-led administration.
Ebbo explained that each of the six sugar factories would have a capacity of 5, 000 to 15, 000 (TCD) tonnes of sugarcane crushed per day, producing the likes of sugar, ethanol and power (clean energy).
The sugar companies, when fully functional, have yearly projection of 1.6 million tonnes of sugar and 1.45 million tonnes of ethanol to boost both domestic food production and for export.
Ebbo further disclosed that the agreement would serve as avenues providing enabling environment for other components to invest in the state and as well open several windows of opportunities to Nigerlites and Nigerians for industrialization.
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Ebbo also said that the project would align with the state government’s Green Economy Initiative, with ethanol blending with fuel to reduce carbon footprints in the state.
He enumerated other derivable benefits to the state to include; production and provision by Uttham Sucrotech Company of 110, 000 out growers and other by-products of sugarcane such as refined ethanol, power, cattle feeds and as well empowerment of local farmers for self-sufficiency.
“The initiatives will also see to the provision of an off-take programme of 145 million litres of ethanol from the sugar plants with each of them advantageous to the farmers as they were expected to be making between five and six million Naira revenue yearly,” he said.
Ebbo disclose that the initiative would reduce pressure on the dollar while at the same time guarantee increase in community growth and development among others.
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