By Asmau Ahmad
Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc says Nigeria can earn $700 million foreign exchange annually through implementation of the Backward Integration Policy (BIP) from sugar production.
Chairman of Dangote Sugar Refinery, Aliko Dangote, said this at the company’s 15th Annual General Meeting in Lagos.
Dangote said that allowing for distortions in the sugar masterplan framework would adversely affect the target of the nation attaining self-sufficiency as projected.
He said the policy would not only reduce imports of raw sugar but save the nations enormous foreign exchange used for importation.
Expressing his delight with the BIP, Dangote, however, noted that if the Nigeria Sugar Master Plan was fully implemented and the players adhered strictly to the rules, Nigeria would save between $600 million and $700 million annually as foreign exchange.
“The backward integration policy of Dangote Sugar Refinery is recording appreciable progress and we will remain committed to the policy,” he said.
Addressing shareholders, he said, in spite of the disruptions in the economy occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic, the company announced an increase in production volume which rose by 13.7 percent to 743,858 tonnes in the review period from 654,071 tonnes in 2019.
Dangote noted that the company posted a group turnover of N214.3 billion against N161.1 billion in 2019.
He added that the sugar group posted a 6.9 per cent increase in sales volume from 684,487 tonnes in 2019 to 731,701 tonnes in 2020.
Hence, the board of the company declared a total dividend payment of N18.22 billion to the shareholders, amounting to N1.50 per ordinary share of 50k each.
He explained the improvements were attributable to operations optimisation strategy in spite of the disruption caused by civil unrest in last quarter of the year.
“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 percent to N53.75 billion, compared to N38.29 billion in 2019 while group profit after tax for the year increased by 33.2 percent to N26.70 billion against N22.36 billion in 2019, reflecting management’s unrelenting goal to deliver consistent shareholder value,” he said.
Dangote said the company had revised its sugar production target to 550,000 metric tonnes achievable by 2024 in line with the revised plan of the BIP by the Federal Government.
