Flour Mills invests N65bn in sugar dev’t

Flour Mills of Nigeria PLC says it has invested N65 billion in its new Sugar Mill being developed on a 3000 hectares of land in Suntai, Niger State.

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It has also spent $200 million upgrading the sugar refinery in Apapa, Lagos.

The Deputy Chief Operation Officer, Agro Allied Division at FMN, Sadiq Usman, made the statement when he received the Executive Secretary of the National Sugar Development Commission (NSDC), Mr Zach Adedeji during a tour of Golden Sugar Company in Lagos recently.

“In terms of what our target is under the Backward Integration Programme, we are committed to 250,000 metric ton per annum between our two sites in Suntai and Nasarawa. We are also in the process of concluding arrangements to acquire another piece of land,” He stated.

He also said Nigeria has achieved only five per cent of its local production capacity relative to where it is supposed to be in accordance with the National Sugar Master Plan.

Commenting, Mr Adedeji said “the federal government is committed to implementing the master plan to grow the industry and create employment for our teaming youths.”

According to him, “The consumption rate of sugar in Nigeria today is about 1.5 million metric ton and we have a target to produce 1.7 million metric tons at the end of the phase of the master plan which is 2024.”

On the FMN facility, Adedeji said, “I am impressed with what I have seen and I am very sure the same commitment we deployed to put these refineries in place we can now transfer the same to backward integration which requires a lot of capital and massive land among others.”