The Chairman of Dangote Sugar Plc, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, says the company plans to end the importation of sugar in the next four years going by efforts in its backward integration policy.
He stated this during the company's 18th Annual General Meeting held in Lagos where the company's shareholders approved the appointment of some Board members whose tenures have expired.
According to Alhaji Dangote, implementation of the national backward integration policy was the best way for the company to go in the future to prevent issues relating to forex losses and others. In the full year 2023, the company recorded around N201 billion in both realised and unrealised FX revaluation losses.
He stated, "I can assure you on our own, we think the best future of this company is through the backward integration because backward integration will actually give you much more profit and stability and it will erase all this exchange rate losses."
"By the grace of God in the next four years maximum, our company should be producing what we are selling currently all domestic. If we import any sugar, it will only be to complement what we are producing. Our target is to hit at least 700,000 tonnes between Nasarawa and Numan."
Update on planned merger of Dangote's food companies
Reacting to questions bothering on the suspension of the planned merger of Dangote sugar with Nascon and Dangote rice Ltd, the chairman stated the merger was put on hold by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) because their rice factory has not come on stream.
He also mentioned that the rice factory in Jigawa is expected to be commissioned shortly. The facility's processing capacity represents about 34% of the national processing capacity, with an output of 1 million tonnes.
Backstory
In the year under review, the Dangote sugar recorded an increase in revenue from N403 billion to N441.5 billion while Operating profit stood at N72.69 billion. However, the company's financial performance was severely impacted by foreign exchange losses of N171.4 billion.
Like many of its contemporaries in the consumer goods industry, the company would not be paying any dividend for the full year 2023.
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