The National Sugar Development Council and the Bank of Industry have created the Sugar Project Acceleration Fund to support the development and expansion of greenfield sugar projects across Nigeria.

The ₦10 billion fund is designed to provide financing and project development support to viable greenfield initiatives, with the goal of fast-tracking the growth of a sustainable and competitive sugar industry in the country.

A statement issued by the NSDC on Sunday said the council hosted an interactive session where the NSDC and BOI engaged and educated greenfield project promoters who are potential beneficiaries of the fund.

Speaking at the event, the Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of the NSDC, Kamar Bakrin, noted that the availability of capital alone would not automatically lead to increased sugar production.

“Here is a reality that every serious project promoter knows: Capital availability, on its own, will not result in sugar production. Development finance institutions manage billions of dollars in agro-industrial finance and are under pressure to deploy capital. Impact investors are actively seeking credible opportunities in African food systems.

“The constraint, far more often than people appreciate, is not the availability of money. It is the availability of projects that are structured, documented, and de-risked to the standard required to receive financing,” he said.

Bakrin explained that for a project to be bankable, it must start with a technically sound feasibility study that thoroughly covers agronomy, water balance, infrastructure needs, and social and environmental risks, applying the same level of rigor that financiers use during due diligence.

“What does a bankable project look like? It begins with a technically credible feasibility study — one that addresses agronomy, water balance, infrastructure requirements, and social and environmental risks with the same rigour that a financier’s due diligence team will apply. It requires a robust financial model — one that stress-tests assumptions, demonstrates debt service capacity under adverse scenarios, and presents a capital structure that appropriately allocates risk.

“It demands a clear land tenure framework, an articulated outgrower model, a credible implementation plan with realistic milestones, and a management team whose track record inspires confidence. It must satisfy the ESG standards of the institutions whose capital it seeks — standards that are neither optional nor declining in rigour.

“Most projects that come to us do not yet meet this bar. That is not a criticism — it is the nature of early-stage project development. But it means that the journey from concept to financial close requires deliberate, structured investment in project preparation — investment that is frequently beyond the individual capacity of project promoters to absorb independently,” he said.

The NSDC chief emphasized that the SPAF is “NSDC’s structured pre-investment facility, designed to give qualifying project promoters the technical, financial, and advisory support needed to develop their projects to a bankable standard.”

“SPAF is not a grant programme, and it is not a gesture. It is a rigorous, output-oriented facility with clear eligibility criteria, defined deliverables, and an explicit objective: to build a credible, investor-ready pipeline of Nigerian sugar projects that can absorb the financing we are working to mobilise,” he added.