BUA urged to sustain expansion at Lafiagi Sugar

BUA’s Lafiagi Sugar Company was recently visited by the inter-ministerial National Sugar Roadmap Implementation Committee (SURMIC) of the federal government.

The SURMIC officials, alongside directors of technical and planning at the National Sugar Development Council, members of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, the Ministry of Agriculture and the the Ministry of Power, took a tour of BUA Group’s Lafiagi Sugar Plantation. The team inspected equipment and the ongoing work to ascertain whether the company was complying with the government’s backward implementation policy.

Speaking during the visit, Muhammed Jika, director, technical, at the National Sugar Council, commended the pace of ongoing work at the Lafiagi Sugar Company as well as the investments in infrastructure on ground. “We are satisfied with what we have seen on ground. Whilst the ongoing work is commendable, we expect BUA to sustain the current pace of work at Lafiagi into the future so that Nigerians can start to benefit fully from the backward implementation policy of the federal government,” Jika said.

In his response, Isiaku Samuel, a general manager at Lafiagi Sugar Company, said despite the challenges faced in taking full ownership of the site after BUA purchased the company through a privatisation exercise, BUA went ahead to mobilise manpower and equipment to kickstart the once-moribund facility, in addition to acquiring an additional 50,000hectares in Bassa Local Government of Kogi State for sugarcane farming. “We are happy with this visit by the SURMIC to verify ongoing work at our facility. Whilst we have made considerable efforts in developing a sugarcane nursery and land development activities for the next planting season, we have also deployed additional manpower and equipment to fast-track the development of the plantation. We have also ensured that the Sugar Council and other relevant stakeholders have been carried along in this process,” Samuel said.

BUA Group, a conglomerate with interests in sugar, flour, rice, cement, steel and real estate to port operations, has been accused of abusing the federal government’s incentives by taking an undue advantage of its concession targeted at helping sugar importers transform into integrated sugar producers, without making tangible efforts to produce locally. .

Industry players have called for sanctions on BUA. However, this visit could whittle down any impending sanction, say analysts.

Dangote Sugar remains the leader in the industry and has pumped in about $2 billion in investments in six states in the country, through Savannah Sugar in Numan, Adamawa State, North-East Nigeria.

HoneyGold Group is also investing $300 million on two sites in Adamawa state, while Crystal Sugar Mills is currently investing $30 million to expand its operations at Hadejia, Jigawa state.

Similarly, Confluence Sugar Company is investing $240million in Kogi State to produce at Ibaji.