Mr. Sylvain Judex, the Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Sugar Refinery (DSR) Numan, has announced the company’s bold ambition to achieve an annual production of 1.5 million metric tonnes of sugar, driven by their recent aggressive expansion efforts.
Judex disclosed this information to the journalists during a facility tour in the Numan Local Government Area of Adamawa State yesterday.
According to him, the expansion campaign has proven to be highly successful. The Dangote Group took over the business, which was in a dilapidated state, on a 32,000-hectare property in Numan in 2002. Over the years, the company’s fortunes have transformed significantly as a result of continuous expansion efforts.
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Judex emphasized that the environmentally friendly expansion aligns with top-notch environmental standards, ensuring zero environmental pollution, while simultaneously generating a minimum of 8,000 job opportunities for Nigerians.
What this means for the Economy
As a key player in the sugar industry, the expansion is targeted to boost their production and also create employment opportunities, thus increasing the workforce in the country.
According to the company, the refinery is targeting a staff strength of 8000 employees on a projected 17000 tonnes of sugar cane being crushed per day.
As stated by Judex, the expansion will create more job opportunities for the host community and drive prosperity in the economy at large.
- “We are into business to make the prosperity of our community, and everybody will be carried along. We are not in business to make profits,” he said.
In addition, the upgrading of the sugar refinery is expected to generate 32 megawatts of electricity from the installation of new turbines and 2-high pressure boilers of 90 tonnes of steam per hour.
Judex added that the singular feast alone can create job opportunities through Public Private Partnerships for the people of the state as the company covers five LGAs of Lamurde, Numan, Guyuk, Shelleng, and Demsa.
What You Should Know
Nigeria’s sugar industry is still in its emerging stage, with substantial initiatives aimed at sugar production.
In 2003, the Dangote Group acquired Savannah Sugar Company Limited from the Federal Government, marking the beginning of their backward integration plan to cultivate sugarcane locally and refine it.
Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc. is currently the largest producer of sugar in Nigeria and Africa.
Twenty years on and the backwards integration is lacking behind? Why so slow?
By now, 20years on Dangote Sugar should be exporting sugar.