The National Sugar Development Council (NSDC) has revealed that Lagos, Ogun and Oyo states account for 80 per cent of sugar consumed in the country.
It stated that households consume less than 20 per cent of sugar, while industrial consumption takes the largest chunk.
According to the council, the real sugar consumers are the industrial players – where companies like Cadbury, Breweries, Dangote and BUA – take the lion’s share.
The NSDC Executive Secretary, Zacch Adedeji, disclosed this, yesterday, when the officials of the Oyo State Government led by the Director-General of the State Liaison Office, Abuja, Wade Ajani, visited the council on a fact-finding mission in Abuja.
Adedeji explained that Nigeria currently requires over 250,000 hectares of irrigation lands to meet the 1.7 million metric tons of daily sugar consumption.
He stressed the importance of Oyo to the growth of sugar in Nigeria as it has a large landmass and is close to the market.
He called on the government to assist the council to acquire more land to enable it to complete its factories while assisting in de-risking the private sector.
He noted: “We need the assistance of the state government in the area of road construction, irrigation for our proposed dam, also in the mill we are putting in place.”