Nigeria is intensifying efforts to transform its sugar industry through a strategic partnership between the National Sugar Development Council (NSDC) and the Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM Bank).
The partnership, which emerged from a high-level meeting between both organisations in Abuja, is designed to support large-scale sugar projects using the Engineering, Procurement, Construction plus Financing (EPC+F) model, a framework expected to attract global investment into Nigeria’s sugar value chain.
Under the proposed arrangement, the NSDC will originate and develop policy-aligned, bankable sugar projects while supporting equity mobilisation.
NEXIM Bank, on its part, will facilitate access to international Export Credit Agencies (ECAs), coordinate financing syndication with Development Finance Institutions (DFIs), support foreign input financing, and provide risk-mitigation tools, including guarantees and commercial risk insurance.
Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of NSDC, Kamar Bakrin, highlighted the significant market potential within Nigeria and across Africa, stating that Nigeria’s sugar market is valued at about $2 billion, while the continental market stands at roughly $7 billion.
He added that sugar by-products in Nigeria alone exceed a $10 billion market value.
“Nigeria cannot achieve self-sufficiency in sugar production on short-term capital. What the sector requires is patient, long-tenor financing deployed at scale and backed by policy certainty. By partnering with NEXIM Bank and international export credit partners, we are putting in place a financing architecture that allows serious investors to execute, not speculate,” Bakrin said.
Mr Bakrin noted that Nigeria is strategically positioned to serve domestic and regional markets under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), provided that sustainable financing is deployed to expand sugarcane cultivation and industrial processing capacity across the country.
He further explained that the EPC+F model has already been successfully implemented through NSDC’s partnership with Chinese industrial conglomerate SINOMACH, under which financing of up to $1 billion has been structured at the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) plus three per cent, with a 15-year tenor and a three-year moratorium.
According to the NSDC, the financing model is projected to generate annual foreign exchange savings of about $300 million through import substitution, create more than 50,000 jobs across the sugar value chain, and achieve up to 25 per cent reduction in sugar imports within five to ten years.
Responding, Managing Director of NEXIM Bank, Abba Bello, described the initiative as critical to Nigeria’s economic diversification and export growth agenda.
He expressed the Bank’s readiness to explore structured financing partnerships that would strengthen local value chains and boost Nigeria’s competitiveness in regional and global markets, commending NSDC’s execution-driven strategy and reaffirming the Bank’s support for export-oriented and import-substitution projects aligned with national development priorities.