By Merit Ibe
The Dangote Industries Limited has said its plan for backward integration is to produce 700 thousand metric tonnes of sugar to satisfy at least 50 percent of the current demand of the product in the country.
The Chief Executive Officer of the company, Aliko Dangote made the remark yesterday at 18th annual general meeting of the Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc, while presenting the company’s performance in 2023, noting that for the sugar sector to thrive, government must protect industrialists who dare to invest.
He also pointed out that as industrialists invest their money, government must make sure that policies, rules and regulations are fully followed by the players, which is not so at the moment.
“For sugar, we are targeting 700 thousand metric tonnes in the next four to five years .
“Our plan for backward integration is to do 700 metric tonnes to satisfy at least 50 percent of the current demand.
“Given the current economic reality, for the Sugar sector to thrive government must protect the industry because it is not an easy place to invest.
“As Nigeria’s largest sugar producer, DSR has developed and is implementing a “Sugar for Nigeria Project”, a Sugar Backward Integration Projects Development Master Plan to produce 1.5 million metric tonnes of sugar per annum from locally grown sugarcane. The sugar for Nigeria project will consolidate Dangote Sugar’s leadership in the sector as a leading integrated sugar company in Africa.”
Dangote said the sugar operations are powered by policies and procedures that are aimed at the attainment of sustainable economic growth through industrialization, empowerment, value creation for all stakeholders and positive impact within our communities and the country at large.
“This is mirrored in the Dangote Sugar Master Plan, a drive towards the attainment of self-sufficiency in sugar production in Nigeria in line with the Federal Government’s agenda to achieve sustainable local sugar production, to end importation, save foreign exchange, generate employment amongst other benefits of the extended value chain in sugar production.
“Our target is to produce 1.5 – 2.0 million metric tonnes of refined granulated edible sugar from locally grown sugarcane across various locations in Nigeria. To achieve this, DSR has made huge investments in land acquisition, machinery, land development, human resources, and community development amongst others over the past 10 years.”
For his part, Group Managing Director/CEO, Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc, Ravindra Singh Singhvi noted that despite the challenges in the business environment, the company is resolute and focused on the delivery of business targets in medium to long term.
“Though the outlook remains challenging, we will maximize the opportunities in the Nigerian market, with the expanding population and arable land for agriculture which serves as significant growth potentials for our business going forward. As we continue to navigate through the scarcity and high cost of foreign exchange, escalating costs of raw materials amongst others, our focus is to enhance the effectiveness of our supply chain processes, optimise cost, improve our operational efficiencies and delivery on our sugar for Nigeria backward integration project.”
Singh Singhvi said the target is to produce a minimum of 1.5MT refined sugar annually from locally produced sugarcane at our integrated sugar production estates, which is expected to alleviate some pressure on costs and demand for foreign currency.
He emphasised that achievement of a sustainable business remains one of our key strategies and concerted efforts were made towards sustaining the achievements we have recorded in the past.
“Our strategic focus remains the achievement of the “Sugar for Nigeria master plan, the plan is tailored towards the attainment of sugar self-sufficiency for Nigeria with the production of 1.5M MT of granulated sugar annually from our sugar estates in the country under the Nigeria Sugar Master plan.”