President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday inaugurated the N50bn Sunti Golden Sugar Estate in Niger State Central Nigeria. The Nigerian government says it will continue to focus on natural endowments for the inclusive growth of the country. “This project is timely as Nigeria makes her journey out of recession and the economy continues to show considerable progress.
We are reminded of one of the cardinal objectives of this administration which is to look inwards as we focus on our natural endowments in agriculture, and other non-oil sectors for inclusive growth and development. The level of work and magnitude of investment that we are witnessing here today is a clear demonstration that our policies on economic diversification are attracting the right kind of support and engagement. On that note, I must congratulate the entire members of the board, management and staff of Flour Mills for such a major step in expanding the business and creating more jobs for our people.” He said.
President Buhari expressed delight at the number of jobs that will be created by the sugar company, which when completed, would employ over 10,000 people.
Aerial View Of 17,000-hectare Sunti Golden Sugar Estate Commissioned By Buhari:
“The Sunti Golden Sugar Estate, as I am told, was built at a cost of over fifty billion naira making it one of the largest Agro-allied investments in Nigeria today, with a capacity to produce 100,000 metric tons of sugar annually. I am informed the Estate will engage up to 10,000 people directly including a network of over 3,000 small-scale out growers of Sugar cane. This to my mind is central to our administration’s determination to have an inclusive economy. The socio-economic impact of such a massive investment, in rural area of Nigeria, cannot be quantified. Lives will change for thousands in these localities. And the impact on the national economy will be significant,” President Buhari stated.
The Nigerian leader assured citizens that government will continue to diversify in order to further boost the already growing Nigerian economy.
He said: “Let me reassure Nigerians, that this administration is fully committed to the transformation and diversification of the economy. We will continue to support businesses by creating enabling business environment. I wish to assure Nigerians that this government will continue to focus on the improvement of security and critical infrastructure, like roads, construction of rails and power generation across the country as a vital pre-requisite to economic progress.”
While charging the company to help fix the dilapidated road to Mokwa where the industry is located, he said: “We all know that Government cannot do everything alone. We will need to partner with the private sector. Therefore, we expect that the company would seize this opportunity to further develop the Sunti-Mokwa Road through its corporate social responsibility programs. This will complement the flour mills ongoing rebuilding of the critical Apapa-Wharf Road in conjunction with other private and public-sector stakeholders.”
