Nigeria, India Seal Pact on Establishment of Sugar Institute

The National Sugar Development Council (NSDC), Abuja, on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Sugar Institute (NSI), Kanpur, India on the establishment of a Sugar Institute in Ilorin, Kwara State.

The MoU was signed by the Executive Secretary of NSDC, Dr Latif Busari, and the Director, NSI, Kanpur, India, Mr Narendra Mohan at the High Commission of India in Abuja.

Mr Busari who noted that Nigeria is currently implementing the National Sugar Masterplan which began in 2013, said the MoU was necessary to train adequate manpower for the development of the sugar factories in the country.

Although he said the under the masterplan which is a bit slower than government thought it would be, Nigeria hopes to become self-sufficient in terms of sugar production.

He therefore hoped that the signing of the agreement will mark a dawn chapter in the Nigeria-India relations, adding that the ties between both countries had gone beyond trade.

“We currently do not have such capacity and that was why we thought along with developing the various sugar estates, developing the sugar factories, we should now begin to think of the technical people that will work in those factories and the estates. That is why we contacted our friends in NSI Kanpur, to collaborate with them so that we can have a world class institution just like theirs,” Busari said.

Also speaking, Mr Narendra Mohan decried that Nigeria is a huge sugar-deficient country requiring around two million tonnes of sugar per annum, but producing around 223 percent only.

Mohan also stressed that statistics showed that 16 percent of Nigeria’s total sugar production was going to consumers and other industries, hence the need to improve the capacity to produce more.

He further stressed that the need to establish sugar industries were important, but having the suitable skilled manpower to manage the factories were also equally important adding that the MoU was just to draw the structure of the establishment of the sugar institute in the country, including the training of the trainers.

On his part, the Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Abhay Thakur, said India had been involved in capacity building programme with Nigeria for a very long time.

“In fact, the Nigerian Defence Academy in Kaduna was set up in a similar fashion way back about 15 years ago and the first commandant of the Nigerian Defence Academy in Kaduna was a well known Indian Brigadier whose name has really gone down in the Nigerian military history,” Thakur said.

Source: DailyTrust Nigeria