Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc has said that it is aiming to help Nigeria achieve self-sufficiency in the production of sugar and its by-products.
The food and agro-allied company said this in a statement made available to The PUNCH on Sunday, in which it said it had been at the forefront of driving food sufficiency in Nigeria since its incorporation on September 29, 1960, which was two days before the country achieved her independence.
In support of the National Sugar Master Plan Agenda, the group said it set up its Sugar Cane Outgrower Scheme through which it builds capacity locally. FMN has also participated in the NSMP and Backward Integration Plan since its inception in 2012 through its subsidiary Golden Sugar Company situated on the Niger River in Niger State. At Sunti in Niger State, the company has an area of 22,000ha on which a 15,000-hectare sugar estate is being developed.
“More than N73bn has already been invested to establish the sugar estate of 3,500ha of irrigated sugar cane and a sugar factory with a 3,000 tons per day milling capacity. The factory is the only one constructed under the NSMP and producing sugar today. Once the development is complete 150,000 tons of sugar will be produced per year.”
Commenting on the Group’s Sugar investment, Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Boye Olusanya, said “FMN, through its subsidiary, Golden Sugar Company initiated progressive agricultural interventions towards driving sugar self-sufficiency in Nigeria and introduced the outgrower programme; a transformative and innovative agricultural intervention designed for local capacity development.
