Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote has bemoaned the negative impact of the traffic gridlock into the nation's Apapa SeaPort and the influx of smuggled sugar on the bottom line of his sugar refinery business.
“2018 was quite a challenging year for the company with several negative activities, which include influx of smuggled sugar into the key markets nationwide coupled with the Apapa traffic gridlock, which continue to affect evacuation of products from the refinery,” Dangote said.
He noted that prior to the traffic gridlock at Apapa, the company could move up to between 60 and 70 trucks out of the refinery daily but that since the problem started, it could hardly move up to 20 trucks out of the refinery.
He, however, expressed confidence that the company will continue to deliver value to its shareholders in spite of the huge challenges facing its operations.
Dangote Sugar Refinery posted a profit before tax of 34.6 billion and gross earnings of 150.4 billion from its operation at the end of the 2018 financial year.Dangote who spoke at the general shareholders' meeting in Lagos said the company has continued to pursue its backward integration plan aggressively by focusing on issues that had been bogging down the plan and subsequently adjusting the timelines.
He said the company had to revise its backward integration timeline to mitigate against unforeseen challenges, adding that the first phase of the plan included the rehabilitation and expansion of the Savanna Sugar, the Lau/Tau project in Taraba state and the Tunga sugar project in Nasarawa State.
According to him, Savanna Sugar remains the only company producing sugar from sugarcane grown in the country and has just ended its 2018/2019 crop season.
“Rehabilitation of the land and its infrastructure for improved yield and output is still ongoing,” he said.
Dangote disclosed that the first-phase expansion of the Savanna Sugar capacity from the current 3,000 tons of cane per day to 3,500TCD had been completed.
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