The National Sugar Development Council (NSDC) has called on beverage manufacturers to guarantee the purchase of locally produced sugar, saying predictable demand and stable policies are critical to attracting the investments needed to achieve Nigeria’s sugar self-sufficiency target.
Kamar Barkin, chief executive officer of the NSDC, said the country’s sugar industry requires about $7bn in investment to achieve full self-sufficiency, while successful implementation of the Nigerian Sugar Master Plan could create 110,000 jobs, benefit about one million Nigerians and save the country $1bn annually in sugar import costs through backward integration.
Speaking at a panel session on Nigeria’s industrial policy, sectoral reforms and measurable economic outcomes at the 32nd Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja on Tuesday, Barkin said investors needed confidence that locally produced sugar would have a ready market.
He noted that sugar investments typically take about four years before generating cash flows, making policy stability and guaranteed demand important considerations for businesses committing capital to the sector.
‘One is you need to be able to commit to guarantee off-take of locally produced goods. I know some of this is already happening, but you need to reconcile the matter of policy, as it were, to commit to and to off-take because that’s what’s going to give the financiers the confidence.
‘In those four years, the private sector investors will need to see stable demand during this period. At the same time, they want to see stable policies.
‘We are talking about people who, in total, they’re probably going to see about seven billion dollars of investments in order to get to full self-sufficiency. These are not small numbers.
‘When it is successfully implemented, what does the Nigerian sugar master plan do? It will create 110,000 jobs. This will impact about one million Nigerians,’ he said
Barkin urged beverage manufacturers to support local production through off-take agreements, backward integration and investments in host communities, stressing that stronger links between sugar producers and industrial consumers would help deepen domestic value chains.
‘The achievement of backward integration of Nigeria, it will save Nigeria every year a billion dollars in importation of sugar from backward integration. These are numbers that are not inconsequential by any standard of imagination,’ he added.
The sugar industry’s concerns come amid broader calls from manufacturers and business groups for greater consistency in government policies, better coordination among regulatory agencies and improved engagement with the private sector to reduce uncertainty around investment decisions.
Zahrah Audu, director-general of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), said policy stability and predictability were essential to creating a business environment in which investors could plan and commit resources with confidence.
She stressed the need for government to engage stakeholders before introducing policy changes, warning against what she described as the ‘surprise element’ in policymaking.
Audu said businesses needed a clear, publicly accessible and preferably digital directory of government policies across sectors. Such a platform, she explained, would enable businesses and policymakers to identify existing rules, cross-reference their implications and reduce the risk of conflicting regulations.
She also said PEBEC had a digital reporting platform through which businesses could escalate challenges involving 69 business-facing ministries, departments and agencies, with responses expected within 72 hours.
According to her, the council is also working to improve coordination between federal and subnational governments and address illegal checkpoints and unauthorised fees that increase the cost of doing business.
Manufacturers at the session said inconsistent regulations and weak coordination across federal, state and local governments continued to raise operating costs and weaken the predictability required for long-term investment.
Segun Ajayi-Kadir, director-general of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), said manufacturing accounted for about 8 per cent of Nigeria’s real gross domestic product, while the sector’s share of exports remained below 2 per cent in the first quarter of 2026.
He also cited manufacturing capacity utilisation below 60 per cent, underscoring the difficulties confronting producers seeking to expand output and compete in domestic and international markets.
Ajayi-Kadir called for predictable fiscal policies, regulatory coherence across all levels of government, reliable electricity, better logistics and the development of industrial parks to support manufacturing growth.
He presented the Nigeria Industrial Policy Sectoral Competitiveness and Growth Initiative as part of efforts to strengthen the sector’s contribution to economic growth and exports.
Amaka Onyemelukwe, senior director at Coca-Cola Nigeria, said the non-alcoholic drinks sector contributed 46 per cent of manufacturing GDP across its operations and 33 per cent of total manufacturing output, while supporting 1.9 million jobs.
She said the sector also contributed about N386m daily in sugar-sweetened beverage taxes, excluding other taxes such as value-added tax and company income tax.
‘Nigeria does not need less regulation or less revenue. We simply need smarter and better coordinated policy,’ Onyemelukwe said.
She identified the cumulative effect of regulatory requirements, including traceability systems, excise tax stamps and multiple haulage taxes, as a concern for businesses. She called for regulatory impact assessments and better coordination to ensure that new requirements did not impose unnecessary costs on producers.