Nigeria and India have agreed to establish a Sugar institute in Nigeria as part of the effort to implement the national sugar masterplan.
Local media reports on Thursday said that the National Sugar Institute (NSI) of India and the National Sugar Development Council (NSDC) signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the establishment of the Institute on Wednesday.
The reports added that the MoU was signed by the Executive Secretary of the NSDC, Dr. Latif Busari, and the Director General NSI, Mr. Narendra Mohan, at the India High Commission in Abuja.
Busari said that the collaboration with the NSI would help address the challenges faced in the implementation of the Nigeria sugar master plan, which was launched six years ago.
He explained that one of the challenges was the lack of the needed manpower to run the sugar factories.
“As you all know that the Nigerian sugar master plan was launched six to seven years ago, and it became clear that we have a serious challenge in terms of the technical manpower needed.
“We saw that if we must succeed in establishing the sugar factories, the factories will be lacking in the areas of managing the factories and the farms.
“Then we saw the need to set up an institution that will rapidly develop the technical manpower that is needed in the sugar industry in Nigeria.
“So, when we decided on that we started looking for where we could leverage on the experiences that several nations have had already.
“We do not have to reinvent the wheel and looking round we came to two institutions, and one of them is the National Sugar Institute Kanpur, India and what you see today is the outcome of the interaction we had in the past few months,” he said.
He added that when established, the Nigerian sugar industry would benefit from the huge market available.
“How it will factor into the Nigerian industries and energy is if you see the sugar master plan.
“We will be able to generate more than 400 mega-watts of electricity. We will produce more than 160 million litres of ethanol.
‘These are if we are able to completely implement the plan,’’ he said.
Responding, Mohan said that the agreement was basically for setting up an institute in Ilorin in Kwara State.
“So we are going to give the first detail of the extraction such as what type of classrooms, laboratories, equipment and all that.
“The second part is about the training of the trainers because ultimately you do not have the faculty of your own at present,’’ he said.
MM/GIK/APA