From their own resources

With around 190 million people, Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country. BMA assists Nigerian sugar producers in their task of making Nigeria self-sufficient in sugar. This includes knowledge transfer.

Readers of last year’s BMA Info 56 may remember that our services to the Nigerian sugar sector go beyond the supply of machinery and equipment, including the training of technical staff and knowledge sharing. On 11 September 2018, about 50 participants came together at the EKO Hotel in Lagos for the first ever Nigerian Sugar Technology Symposium, hosted jointly by BMA and Nigeria’s National Sugar Development Council (NSDC).

Founded in 1993, the NSDC is based in the Nigerian capital Abuja. Executive Secretary Dr Latif Busari and his team’s key objective is to speed up development of the sugar industry. This is to ensure that Nigeria can rapidly attain a high level of self-sufficiency and even export sugar. Its target markets are neighbouring countries whose own sugar production does not meet domestic demand.

The NSDC serves as the main agency for coordinating all activities in the sugar sector, ranging from sugar production and marketing to the control of import regulations and to the enforcement of industry standards in collaboration with the authorities.

For the national sugar industry and public sector bodies, the Nigerian Sugar Technology Symposium provided an opportunity to learn more about the latest developments in sugar production. At this debut event, the experts from BMA focused on two topics: increasing sugar output and reducing water and steam consumption in production.

Following positive feedback from all participants, BMA and NSDC have decided to make the sugar technology symposium a regular training and exchange event for Nigerian sugar experts. A second symposium is already firmly planned for 2019.