By Lucy Ogalue
The National Sugar Development Council (NSDC), and the Bank of Industry (BOI) have unveiled a N10 billion Sugar Project Acceleration Fund (SPAF) to support greenfield sugar projects.
The NSDC Executive Secretary, Mr Kamar Bakrin, on Sunday said the fund was aimed at providing financing and project development support to viable promoters.
According to Bakrin, this will help to accelerate the emergence of a sustainable and competitive sugar industry in Nigeria.
The SPAF was designed to help transform early-stage sugar project ideas into bankable investments capable of attracting financing from development finance institutions and impact investors.
The executive secretary said access to capital alone does not automatically translate into sugar production.
Bakrin said that development finance institutions globally managed billions of dollars for agro-industrial investments but required projects that were properly structured and de-risked before funding.
He explained that many proposed sugar projects failed to attract funding because they lacked credible feasibility studies, strong financial models and clear implementation strategies.
According to him, bankable projects must demonstrate sound agronomic planning, infrastructure readiness, realistic timelines and responsible environmental and social governance standards.
Bakrin said many project promoters struggled to meet these requirements because the cost of proper project preparation was often beyond their individual capacity.
He described SPAF as a structured pre-investment facility established to support promoters with technical, financial and advisory services needed to prepare bankable projects.
“SPAF is not a grant programme but a rigorous facility with defined eligibility criteria and deliverables aimed at building a credible pipeline of investor-ready sugar projects,” he said.
Ms Hadiza Shuaib, an official of BOI, said the bank would serve as fund manager while NSDC provided sector leadership and technical guidance.
Shuaib said BOI would oversee credit appraisal, risk management, loan disbursement, monitoring and evaluation, and account closure after full repayment.
She said the bank would ensure projects were properly structured, risks managed effectively and funds deployed responsibly.
According to her, the programme also emphasises skills development and capacity building to ensure long-term sustainability of supported projects.
Shuaib added that only businesses engaged in sugar or sugar-related activities would qualify to benefit from the fund.
Greenfield promoters present at the session included Illaj Sugar, Brent Foods, Crystal Sugar, Legacy Sugar, Saro Sugar, Awaa, Ganic and Confluence Sugar.
The initiative is expected to strengthen Nigeria’s sugar value chain and support the development of new large-scale sugar projects across the country.
The council’s officials educated prospective greenfield promoters on how to access the fund and develop investment-ready projects.