Dangote Upscales Investment In Sugar

Nigeria’s quest to attain self-sufficiency in sugar production remains Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc’s major priority.

The company, in helping Nigeria towards self-sufficiency in sugar production by moving from importation and refining to creating new plantations with their own refining facilities, close to major centres of demand, with a target to produce 1.5 to 2.0 million tonnes of refined sugar annually by 2024 from over 150,000 hectares of locally grown sugar cane.

The Nigerian Sugar Master Plan of 2012 is the starting point for backward integration in the sector. The plan’s objective was to boost domestic production of sugar to attain self-sufficiency by 2020 and to contribute to the production of ethanol and the generation of electricity.

Recently, the president of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote announced that the Dangote Sugar Refinery (DSR) Plc is significantly scaling up its investment in the sugar sub-sector in line with the requirement of the Nigeria Sugar Master Plan (NSMP).

Speaking at the Flag off ceremony of the 2022/2023 Crushing Season and Outgrower Scheme Awards in Numan, Adamawa State, Dangote said, the company is making massive investments in Adamawa State through the expansion of DSR Numan sugar refining capacity from 3,000 tonnes of cane per day (tcd) to 6,000 tcd, 9,800 tcd and to 15,000 tcd.

Noting that increasing the sugar refining capacity will require a corresponding increase in sugarcane production capacity, he revealed that, the company has concluded plans to increase its sugar plantation from the current land area under cane production of about 8,700 hectares in 2022 to about 24,200 hectares within the next seven years. He also assured that the company will double its scholarship and empowerment schemes in its host communities.

“We will continue to introduce more initiatives to support our host communities. Through these initiatives and our numerous Corporate Social Responsibility activities, DSR Numan will be able to touch the lives of the people, bringing social, economic, and infrastructural development to our host communities.”

He said: “we are thus committing over $700 million to our investment in the Backward Integration Programme (BIP) to enable us put in place needed infrastructure for the eventual commencement of full-scale production.”

Dangote further assured that Dangote Sugar will change the trajectory by making Nigeria self-sufficient in the sector, saying already, the company has spent billions of naira in developing infrastructural facilities for host communities.

Speaking also at the event, the minister of Industry, Trade, and Investment, Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo described the Dangote Sugar Refinery as the biggest contributor to the sugar development stride of the federal government.

The minister also commended Aliko Dangote and the Management staff of Dangote Sugar for their massive support through the company’s corporate social responsibility scheme, saying this should be highly commended.

He said, agencies under his ministry will partner with the company to provide the technical know-how that will support the Dangote empowerment schemes in the host communities.

In the same vein, governor of Adamawa state, Umaru Fintiri, who was represented by his deputy governor, Crowther Seth said, he was amazed by the social-economic transformation carried out by the Dangote Group, adding that, it is monumental. He assured the company of the support of the state government and enjoined other corporate bodies to imbibe Dangote’s spirit of job creation across the country.

Speaking on behalf of the traditional rulers, Hama Bachama, Dr. Daniel Shaga Ismail, described Dangote as God-sent and pledged that his people would continue to support the company.

Aliko Dangote further announced a Free Education boon for all the students of Dangote Sugar Refinery High School, among other scholarship winners announced.

The overall best Outgrower farmer, Christiana Rufus thanked the company and promised not to relent in her effort.  Six farmers, mostly women emerged as the overall best farmers in the contest and were given various attractive prizes.

Speaking at the Company 16th Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Lagos, the Group managing director/chief executive officer of Dangote Sugar, Mr. Ravindra Singhvi said that “we remained ahead of the pack in implementation of the National Sugar backward Integration Development Master Plan.”

He stated that achievement of the Dangote Sugar Master Plan remained paramount in the Company’s operations. He explained that “steady progress is now being made as we continue the rehabilitation and expansion project at Dangote Sugar, Numan; and development activities at the Nasarawa Sugar Company Limited, Tunga.

“The board and management remain resolute and commitment to ensuring a sustainable future for our business with the Dangote Sugar Master Plan.”

Singhvi added that the implementation of the sugar projects initiatives continues at a high tempo despite the challenges the company face, ranging from the inability to access the land acquired for the sugar projects, community unrests and the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic negative impact on the economic activities.

He also noted that, “we recorded some wins with the peaceful resolution of most issues with the communities and the continued positive engagement with the States and Communities stakeholders that are evident in the successes being recorded at the project sites.”

“We remain confident that the backward integration programme will deliver huge benefits and positive impacts on the country’s economic land scape.”

The sugar refiner has continued to record strong improvements in performance indices. In its unaudited results for the nine months period ended September 30, 2022 posted on the Nigerian Exchange portal revealed profit before tax (PBT) of N36.27 billion for the period under review, rose by N13.17 billion compared to N23.10 billion posted in the corresponding period in 2021.

Profit after tax (PAT) rose from N15.51 billion to N24.83 billion while revenue went up from N195.50 billion to N288.32 billion. The earnings growth primarily reflected a 61.9 per cent rise in sales to N102.9 billion.

Dangote Sugar Refinery, the largest sugar refinery in sub-Saharan Africa and one of the largest in the world, with an installed sugar refining capacity of 1.44 MT/PA at the same location. Dangote Sugar currently has three subsidiaries, Nasarawa Sugar Company Limited, Dangote Taraba Sugar Limited and Dangote Adamawa Sugar Limited.