Minister of Trade & Investment, Olusegun Aganga
MINISTER of Trade and Investments, Dr. Olusegun Aganga, Monday, said the
Federal Government has concluded plans to ban the importation of raw
sugar with effect from January 1, 2013.
He also disclosed the government expects to generate $17.4 billion in
2013 from planned introduction of weight measuring in some sectors of
economy, in 2013, while also saving the nation $3 billion within the
same period.
Aganga who spoke at the Ministry of Trade & Investments’ second
annual seminar for Industry Correspondents and Group Business Editors in
Abuja said the proposed ban on all sugar in retail packages was part of
the federal government’s National Sugar Master Plan. Currently, there
are two major investors in sugar industry which are Dangote Sugar
Refinery and Bua Sugar Refinery.
The minister noted that objectives of the National Sugar Master Plan
include raising local sugar production to attain self sufficiency,
stemming the tide of high level importation, creating of huge number of
job opportunities, as well as contributing to the production of ethanol
and generation of electricity.
He explained that currently 98 percent of brown sugar which are refined into white sugar is imported into the country from Brazil, adding: “All these are going to change next year as only investors who are committed to backward integration in the sugar sector will be given licence to import certain quotas into the country in order to augment local production.
“We want to replicate the success story of backward integration policy
in the cement industry in the sugar industry. We won’t allow the
importation of brown sugar again from 2013.”
Elaborating on the National Sugar Master Plan (NSMP), the Executive
Secretary, National Sugar Development Council, Abuja, Dr. Latif Busari,
emphasised that the council would adopt high graduated tariff structure
on sugar importation, mandatory backward integration programme for
refineries, provision of investors-specific incentives to discourage
importation of raw brown sugar and attract investors into the sector.
He listed other strategies to include regulation of the entire regime of
sugar importation through quota allocation benchmark on local;
production, robust monitoring and evaluation framework to ensure
compliance with milestones and time-lines and enlargement of the
sugarcane value chain players.
Foreign direct investment
Busari said the ban was expected to attract an estimated $3.1 billion foreign direct investment into the country, deepen banking sector via increased loan syndication, savings of foreign exchange on sugar imports and earnings on sugar exports to be deployed to other critical sector.
Busari said the ban was expected to attract an estimated $3.1 billion foreign direct investment into the country, deepen banking sector via increased loan syndication, savings of foreign exchange on sugar imports and earnings on sugar exports to be deployed to other critical sector.
He said that with backward integration in sugar, 1.8 million tonnes of
sugar and 161.2 million litres of ethanol annually would be locally
produced per annum. It is also expected to create 37,378 permanent jobs
and 79,803 seasonal jobs, save $65.8 million in foreign exchange on fuel
imports annually, and $350 to $500 million in foreign exchange on sugar
imports annually.
On metering through weights and measures, Aganga said that the
regulation was introduced to checkmate cheating of Nigerians both in
public and private sectors, stressing that it would first be implemented
in the oil and gas and will extended to other sectors later.
He said: “The regulation if well implemented will save the economy more
than $3 billion and $17 billion in revenue by 2013. Before now, we have
been relying on UNCTAD data for information on new investments that come
into the country, but from January 2013, we will no longer rely on
UNCTAD data.”
Create A Professional Website
—Do you want a prossional website for your business, church, mosque, school, hotel, hospital, services, organization, i can create one for you at an affordable price
Click Here For Details
Learn How To Make Pink Lip Balm
—Learn How To Make Pink Lip Balm, Sell and Make Profit
Click Here To Know How
Become A Website Designer, Blog Creator And A Professional Graphic Designer
Learn how to become a website designer, blog creator and a professional graphic designer with Photoshop,Coral Draw and an expert in the use of Microsoft Word,Microsoft Excel,Microsoft Access
Click Here For The Complete Details
Ads by PLB
—Do you want a prossional website for your business, church, mosque, school, hotel, hospital, services, organization, i can create one for you at an affordable price
Click Here For Details
Learn How To Make Pink Lip Balm
—Learn How To Make Pink Lip Balm, Sell and Make Profit
Click Here To Know How
Become A Website Designer, Blog Creator And A Professional Graphic Designer
Learn how to become a website designer, blog creator and a professional graphic designer with Photoshop,Coral Draw and an expert in the use of Microsoft Word,Microsoft Excel,Microsoft Access
Click Here For The Complete Details
Ads by PLB
No comments:
Post a Comment