Nigeria is losing as much as 300,000 metric tonnes of sugar to smugglers every year, according to Africa’s richest man and the Chairman of Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc Alhaji Aliko Dangote.
The business mogul disclosed this at the 13th Annual General Meeting of the company held on Tuesday in Lagos.
Why this Matters: The activities of smugglers in the sugar manufacturing sector are severely hindering the growth potential of the sector, thereby affecting its ability to contribute to Nigeria’s economy.
Smugglers are known to flood the market with cheap and substandard products after bribing their way through customs, thereby making locally-produced sugar less competitive even though the latter is of superior quality.
According to Aliko Dangote;
“It is very difficult to compete with smugglers who do not pay excise duties, tariffs, but only settles the Nigerian Customs. Smuggling is really adversely affecting our business, but we are working with the government to address the issue.”
This equally implies that the Government is losing a lot of revenue to the activities of smugglers in the sugar industry as well as in many other sectors.
Smuggling has hindered the creation of 250,000 additional jobs in the sector according to Dangote. Therefore, curbing the activities of smugglers could help Nigeria reduce its escalating unemployment rate.
Smuggling-prone states revealed: Dangote went further to name the states in the country that are most notorious for illegal sugar importation and other related activities.
“Sugar smuggling is in the range of over 300,000 metric tonnes, which is a lot with some coming to Lagos, but the majority of the smuggled commodity goes to Katsina, Zamfara, Kebbi, and Sokoto. These are the places we are having the most hit. The government needs to stand up to curb smuggling so that we can create jobs for Nigeria’s teeming unemployed youths.”
Despite the challenges, the company is making expansion efforts. Alhaji Aliko Dangote highlighted the company’s key expansion plans to include the following:
- Completion of the first-phase expansion of Savannah Sugar capacity from 3,000 tons to 3,500 TCD.
- Commencement of the subsequent increase of production capacity of Savannah Sugar to 6,000 TCD.
- Commencement of the installation of the new 12,000TCD factory that will be fed with the increased sugar cane supply.
- Rehabilitation and expansion of the Lau/Tau Project in Taraba State.
- Rehabilitation and expansion of the Tunga Sugar Project in Nasarawa State.
Why has Dangote Sugar not paid the Dividend yet. They were meant to pay on the 19th of June, which was yesterday, but it was not done.