Sona Group of Industries has urged the Federal Government to ban the importation of sorghum, barley and biscuits into the country, noting that Nigeria is self-sufficient in them.
The Group Chief Operating Officer, Sona Group, Mr. Ashok Manghnani , made this call in Ota, Ogun State, during the inauguration of the firm’s new production lines by the Minister of State for Commerce, Industry and Trade, Aisha Abubakar.
According to him, the firm does not only have capacity to take care of local demand but has also started exporting to Senegal, Ghana and Abidjan.
He said, “We produce a vast range of quality products including malted sorghum, malt extract, maltose syrup, glucose syrup (a substitute for imported sugar). The products are key inputs in breweries, biscuits manufacturing, confectionery and pharmaceutical companies as well as other food and beverage industries.
“Our fully automated plant can produce 25,000 tonnes of malt extract, high maltose syrup and raw sorghum. There is therefore the need to increase the import tariff for sorghum upwards from five per cent to discourage importation as we are comfortably self-sufficient in these raw materials.”
In his remarks, the Group Managing Director, SONA Group, Mr. Ajai Musaddi, suggested a reversal of the 20 per cent customs duty on ethanol.
“The miserly five per cent duty on imported plastics and pallets including sorghum should be discouraged. Unless government takes this bold step, local industries will be endangered due to unhealthy competition.”
Responding, the minister promised that the government would address some of the challenges that the manufacturing sector was experiencing by providing an enabling environment for businesses to thrive.
She said, “We are addressing some of the challenges in the various policies. Financing is a major issue in the sector and we are prepared to address that. Currently, we are working to address the sorghum challenge. There is no reason for it to be imported based on what l have seen today.”
By: Anna Okon
Punch News
