In a bold move that underscores China’s steadily expanding footprint across Africa, a $1 billion sugar production deal has been signed between Nigeria and Chinese engineering giant, SINOMACH—marking a significant step toward industrial transformation in Nigeria’s agricultural sector.
The agreement, sealed in collaboration with Nigeria’s National Sugar Development Council (NSDC), is being described as one of the earliest dividends of the Nigeria-China Strategic Partnership, a bilateral initiative championed by President Bola Tinubu to deepen economic cooperation between the two nations.
Speaking to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), NSDC Executive Secretary Kamar Bakrin confirmed that the project will attract investments of up to $1 billion. More importantly, he emphasized its potential to jumpstart a new phase in Nigeria’s sugar industry—one that goes beyond refining imported raw sugar and toward actual domestic cultivation and processing at scale.
Under the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), SINOMACH is expected to build a sugarcane plantation and a state-of-the-art processing facility. The plant will start with a capacity of 100,000 metric tonnes per year, with ambitions to scale up production to one million tonnes over time.
“This isn’t just another investment—it’s a turning point,” Bakrin said. “What makes this partnership with SINOMACH stand out is the integration of engineering expertise, project execution, and development finance. It’s exactly the kind of model we need to drive agro-industrial growth.”
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If successful, the project is expected to generate thousands of jobs, particularly in rural communities, while stimulating infrastructure growth, conserving foreign exchange, and positioning Nigeria to eventually become self-reliant in sugar production.
For years, Nigeria has grappled with a lopsided sugar sector. While local conglomerates like Dangote and BUA have made significant strides in refining, the country has remained heavily dependent on imported raw sugar. As of 2020, Nigeria was still importing over 90% of its sugar needs—a costly pattern that has persisted despite government policies aimed at reversing it.
In 2012, the government launched the Nigeria Sugar Master Plan (NSMP), a 10-year blueprint designed to promote backward integration by encouraging private sugar refineries to invest directly in cultivation. Though the framework was ambitious, progress has been slow. Challenges such as infrastructure gaps, red tape, and entrenched interests in the sugar importation market have consistently held the industry back.
Yet Nigeria’s sugar demand continues to rise—driven by a growing population and the expanding needs of the food and beverage sector. Analysts believe that if the sector is finally developed holistically, it could unlock enormous value in agriculture, processing, logistics, and innovation.
The new deal with SINOMACH may offer just the reset the industry needs. For China, it’s another brick in the wall of its broader Belt and Road strategy, which continues to find traction across the African continent. For Nigeria, it’s a rare opportunity to translate policy into action—and to prove that industrialization isn’t just a vision, but a viable path forward.
