By; BALA B. BITRUS, Minna
President Muhammadu Buhari is expected in Mokwa, Niger State next week Tuesday, (13th of this month) on a working visit to commission the N50 billion Sunti Sugar Company, one of Nigeria’s biggest investments in the agroallied sector of the country’s economy.
The Sunti Sugar Company located in Mokwa Local Government Area of the state, is a subsidiary of the Nigeria Flour Mills. It covers an area of about 15,000 hectres of flat, alluvial wetland and a cane production line of over 5,000 hectres.
The Sunti Sugar Estate is expected to generate over 25,000 jobs while the industry can create 15,000 direct jobs when it comes on stream.
The Sunti Sugar Company has been prostrate for over two decades and was revived by the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari as part of the deliberate efforts to diversify the country’s economy from a monolithic petroleum dependent economy to a non oil driven economy.
Before it collapsed, the company was largely producing brown sugar and related by products from sugar cane and then it went underground and laid off thousand of it’s workforce.
A source within the governing All Progressive Congress in the state told our correspondent that President Buhari would also during his visit to the state, commission a multi million naira military structure belonging to the Training and Doctrine Command, (TRADOC) of the Nigerian Army in Minna.
Though details of the President’s visit are sketchy, a committee has already been raised by the state government to ensure hitch free visit.
The visit would be the first working visit by Buhari since his election into office in 2015. However, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo had last year visited the state during an economic cum investment summit during which time he took time off, on the sideline of the summit to commission a two kilometre road along the western bye pass.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo who was also in the state for the same summit was saddled with the task of commissioning another road of similar standard metres away along the western bye pass.
