How Nigeria can earn $700m yearly from sugar investment

The Dangote Sugar Refinery has urged the federal government to strictly implement the Backward Integration Policy (BIP) in the sugar industry as the nation can earn $700 million yearly from local production.

The Chairman of Dangote Sugar Refinery, Aliko Dangote, disclosed this Thursday at its 15th Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Lagos.

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Dangote said, “If the National Sugar Master Plan is followed strictly and the players all follow the rules, the country will be better for it as Nigeria will save between $600m and $700m annually as forex.”

He stated that the backward integration policy of Dangote Sugar Refinery was recording appreciable progress.

Dangote told the shareholders that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Dangote Sugar raised its production volume by 13.7 percent to 743,858 tonnes in the financial year ended December 31, 2020, compared to 654,071 tonnes in 2019.

He said it posted N214.3 billion turnover, a 33% increase over the N161.1bn in 2019, while in the same period Dangote Sugar posted a 6.9% increase in sales volume from 684,487 tonnes in 2019 to 731,701 tonnes in 2020.

The board then declared a dividend payment of N18.22bn to the shareholders, amounting to N1.50 kobo per ordinary share of 50 kobo each.

Dangote said, “Our growth continued to benefit from the sustained efforts to drive customer base expansion and several trade initiatives and investments.”

Gross profit increased by 40.4% to N53.75bn, compared to N38.29bn in 2019, while gross profit after taxation for the year increased by 33.2% to N26.70bn as against N22.36bn in 2019.

Dangote said the company had revised its sugar production target to 550,000 metric tonnes, achievable by 2024, in line with the revised plan on the BIP by the federal government.

The Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Sugar, Mr Ravindra Singhvi, said, “Our backward integration goal is to become a global force in sugar production, by producing 1.5M MT/PA of refined sugar from locally grown sugar cane for the domestic and export markets.”