CBN invest N26 billion in the Sunti Golden Sugar factory

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has invested a whooping N26 billion in the Sunti Golden Sugar factory, in Niger State and plans more investments in the real sectors of the economy.

The CBN  Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, announced this at the tour of the newly completed factory at the weekend.

 “The bank has invested about N26 billion in the project of such magnitude in order to encourage import substitution and backward integration strategy,” he was quoted as saying in a statement by the bank in Abuja, yesterday.

 Mr. Emefiele assured that the apex bank was prepared to cooperate with genuine investors to support them towards self-sufficiency in local production of essential goods and the economic diversification drive of the present administration.

According to the CBN boss, such investments would be geared towards employment generation and wealth creation.  

He therefore urged smallholder sugar cane farmers in the area to leverage on the presence of the factory to boost their  production, as the company would now buy all their produce.

Speaking earlier, the Chairman of the Flour Mill of Nigeria Group, owners of Sunti Golden Sugar Company, Mr. John Coumantaros, appreciated what he described as “the uncommon support,” which the CBN gave to company, without which the project wouldn’t have been completed on schedule.

The chairman noted that the N45 billion sugar-refining project was expected to create over 15,000 jobs including 3,500 direct jobs, 3,000 small scale out-grower farmers and save over $50 million in foreign exchange for the country annually.


Mr. Coumantaros further stated that Nigeria currently produces 1.7 million metric tons of raw sugar which is just about two per cent of her needs whereas, countries like Benin Republic, Senegal and Mali currently produce 26 per cent, 48 per cent and 28 per cent of their local sugar needs.
As such, the planned one hundred thousand metric tons of raw sugar to be produced by Sunti Golden Sugar Company would augment the supply gap, create jobs and save foreign exchange for the country. 

This is in addition to generation of 10 megawatts of electricity , animal feeds and fertilizer from the sugar cane residue.

In his remarks the event, the Niger State Governor, AlhajiAbubakar Sani Bello commended the management of the CBN for providing the much needed fund for the projects and the Nigeria Flour Mills for working hard to fulfill its obligations to the host community by providing access roads, boreholes, electricity and health facility in addition to the engagement of over 800 construction workers mostly from the host communities.

He urged the company to train the staff to be skilled for future expansion.

He promised to work assiduously to make Niger State  contribute towards making Nigeria self-sufficient in food production, as well as, becoming an exporting nation.

The Group Managing Director, Flour Mills PLC, Paul Gbedebo gave an assurance that farmers in Niger State, in particular, would no longer encounter the problem of searching for markets for their produce as the company would buy off everything, going forward.

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