KEY POINTS
- NSDC and BOI launch N10 billion Sugar Project Acceleration Fund.
- The fund targets structured, bankable projects, not grants.
- BOI handles credit appraisal, risk management and loan disbursement.
The National Sugar Development Council and the Bank of Industry launched the Sugar Project Acceleration Fund this week, putting up N10 billion to support greenfield sugar projects across the country. The Nigeria sugar fund is structured to move early-stage project ideas past the point where most proposals die: the gap between an idea and a bankable investment.
NSDC Executive Secretary Kamar Bakrin was direct about what the initiative is and is not. “Capital availability, on its own, will not result in sugar production,” he told potential beneficiaries at an interactive session hosted by the council. “The constraint, far more often than people appreciate, is not the availability of money. It is the availability of projects that are structured, documented, and de-risked to the standard required to receive financing.”
What a Bankable Project Actually Looks Like
Bakrin laid out the bar clearly. A qualifying project must come with a credible feasibility study covering agronomy, water resources, infrastructure and environmental risks. It also needs a solid financial model, clear land tenure arrangement, an outgrower development plan and a credible implementation strategy.
Most early-stage proposals, he said, do not yet clear that bar. While the Nigeria sugar fund exists to help them get there.
“SPAF is not a grant programme, and it is not a gesture,” Bakrin also said. “It is a rigorous, output-oriented facility with clear eligibility criteria and an explicit objective: to build a credible, investor-ready pipeline of Nigerian sugar projects.”
BOI Takes the Manager’s Seat
Hadiza Shuaib, who led the Bank of Industry team at the session, said the bank will serve as fund manager, handling credit appraisal, risk management, loan disbursement and monitoring. Only businesses engaged in sugar or sugar-related activities qualify.
She further added that skills development sits alongside financing as a priority, arguing that money without capacity rarely delivers lasting outcomes.
Finally, companies represented at the interactive session included Illaj Sugar, Brent Foods, Crystal Sugar, Legacy Sugar, Saro Sugar, Awaa, Ganic and Confluence Sugar, signalling early appetite from the private sector to tap the fund and push Nigerian sugar production forward.
