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Unemployment and poverty will be tackle through the sugar master plan – FG
According to Mr. Zacch Adedeji, Executive Secretary of the National Sugar Development Council, the Federal Government is committed…
According to Mr. Zacch Adedeji, Executive Secretary of the National Sugar Development Council, the Federal Government is committed to using the sugar master plan to lower unemployment and poverty in the nation.
This was said by Adedeji on Tuesday in Iseyin, Oyo State, at the official groundbreaking of the N300 billion Brent Sugar Plantation and Mill.
Along the Iseyin-Ogbomoso route, the 11,000-hectare Brent Sugar Plantation and Mill is located. A canal that will receive water from the 1983-built Ikere Gorge Dam will be used to irrigate about 6,000 hectares.
According to Adedeji, the federal government showed its commitment to creating a prosperous nation by investing in Brent Sugar.
The government, according to him, must exert all efforts to persuade the private sector to invest in initiatives that will help Nigerians, particularly young people, escape poverty.
The sugarcane-based industries, he continued, are one of our most important weapons for assisting in lifting youth out of poverty.
“We must commend Brent Sugar Limited for deeming it fit to establish this kind of project in this environment. This is not only for Oyo State but for Nigeria.
“The mantra of President Muhammadu Buhari is that we must eat what we grow and grow what we eat. This is one practical,” he said.
Brent Sugar’s formation is a way to industrialization and economic development, according to African Development Bank President Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, who was represented by the bank’s Senior Special Assistant on Industrialization, Professor Oyebanji Oyelahan.
He urged the populace to work with the business, stating doing so would be to the nation’s and community’s great advantage.
Mr. Martins Akinola, the Chief Executive Officer of Brent Sugar Limited, stated that a total of around N300 billion over five years would be invested in the project.
“For the sugarcane plantation, the company is investing nothing less than N120bn for the 11, 000 hectares that we are going to plant. We are going to phase it on a yearly basis.”