A market of opportunities

Nigeria may be Africa’s most populous country by far, but it is not the continent’s biggest sugar producer. That is about to change. 

With a population of more than 180 million, Nigeria has one of the largest consumer markets worldwide. Market development, however, is in its infancy in some areas. Food processing is a segment that has attracted significant funding, according to analysts. In some places, there have also been investments in agriculture, particularly the cultivation of regional crops such as rice, maize, cassava, tomatoes, palm oil – and sugar cane.

Nigeria’s population grows by about four million every year, and with it, sugar consumption. An attractive proposition for investors. Especially since the Nigerian government adopted its national sugar master plan (NSMP) in 2013, and, for the time being, placed an import ban on refined sugar. Since then, Nigerian sugar producers have been pouring capital into expanding their sugar factory capacities.

Under the so-called Lafiagi Sugar Project, BUA International Ltd. are building a new cane sugar factory with a processing capacity of 12,000 tons of sugar cane per day. In November 2017, BMA signed a contract for the supply of machinery and equipment for the sugar production core process. The factory is located a stone’s throw away from the river Niger, about halfway between Nigeria’s largest city Lagos on the Gulf of Guinea and the country’s capital Abuja. 

Collaboration with this Nigerian partner has been successful in the past: eight years ago, BMA supplied a range of equipment to the BUA Group for a refinery in Lagos – making this our second large order for the customer. At the time, we had signed an agreement with the London-based procurement group NOM UK.

Scope of the agreement with BUA International Ltd.:

• 11 batch pans 
• 1 drum dryer and cooler (incl. accessories and engineering)
• 8 E1810 batch centrifugals

More about
Machinery &
equipment