CBN bailout Niger Sugar coy with N26b

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on Monday, bailed out Sunti Golden Sugar Mill, in Sunti village, in Mokwa Local Government Area of Niger State, with N26 billion.

The Governor of CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, said that the apex bank was ready to partner with investors and industrialists committed to the integration programme of the Federal Government.

According to him, “ the CBN is ready to give support, both in terms of Naira funding and also in terms of foreign currency funding, for importation of equipment and other machinery to investors and industrialists, who are committed toward the economic growth and development of this country”.

Emefiele, who accompanied Niger State governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, to inspect privately-owned Sunti Golden Sugar Mill, disclosed that the integration scheme of Sunti Sugar Company informed the CBN’s N26 billion intervention fund of single digit interest rate of 7 per cent.

“This project marks the success story of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s focus and his aggressiveness toward ensuring that we diversify our country away from oil economy into a non-oil driven economy. A project like this is an indication that Nigeria is working. It may look a little painful but at this time when there is a scarcity of foreign exchange, this is the kind of project (Sunti Sugar) we will continue to give support to”.

Meanwhile the Chairman of Flour Mills of Nigeria PLC (FMN), Mr. John Coumantaros, said that the Sunti Golden Sugar Estate was a subsidiary FMN integration programme, with 17,000 hectares of land to locally-refined sugar.

Coumantaros disclosed that the plant, which has a production capacity of 1 million metric tons of sugar, annually, would, for a start, be producing 100,000 metric tons of sugar per annum and provide over 25,000 job opportunities.

Bello assured investors of enabling environment and protection of their investment, stressing that the state had been adjudged as one of the states with the least crime index.

He commended the commitment of management of the company towards the integration initiatives, and said that the state would continue to partner investors willing to develop the state.