Aliko Dangote, chairman of Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc, has unveiled the company’s target of producing 700,000 metric tonnes of refined sugar in the next five years.

Mr Dangote, who disclosed this at the company’s 18th annual general meeting on Tuesday in Lagos, said that this was to satisfy at least 50 per cent of the country’s current sugar demands.

He tasked governments at all levels to ensure that the interests and success of the sugar industry were protected so that investments would thrive.

He added that the government must ensure that players in the sugar industry fully follow all policies and rules governing the sector to ensure its advancement.

Mr Dangote disclosed that the company was spending efforts to facilitate dividend payouts for 2024 by further domesticating its entire production process to reduce demand for foreign exchange.

He noted that the operating environment in 2023 was very challenging, not only for the company but for every business operating there and beyond.

He said the challenges ranged from sharp exchange rate depreciation to dollar scarcity to meet organisations’ needs.

The company’s chairman noted that the foreign exchange dilemma had an immense impact on the import of raw sugar, which was the key component of the raw material input to the production process.

According to him, as a result, the company experienced increased costs for importing raw sugar, delays in approvals, and bank letters of credit opening.

Mr Dangote said, “All these, amongst others, led to the results recorded by our company in the year under review. The company recorded a group turnover of N441.5 billion, a 9.5 per cent increase over N403 billion in the corresponding period in 2022.

“Operating profit of N72.69 billion, which was 16.5 per cent of revenue compared to N82.41 billion (20.4 per cent of revenue), showed a strong attempt by the company to recover cost increases.”

He added, “Profit Before Tax (PBT) is (N108.9) billion, while Profit After Tax (PAT) is (N73.8) billion, incurred due to the non-cash foreign exchange loss. Excluding the non-cash foreign exchange loss, recurring PAT was up 78 per cent, at 97.66 billion.”

He projected that while the company outlook remained challenging, its board and management would continue to employ a pragmatic approach to its operations and navigate through scarcity of foreign exchange and escalating costs of raw materials.

Mr Dangote said the company would ensure cost and process optimisation, improved efficiencies in every area of operations and service delivery to customers.

He emphasised that the company would continue to advance its sugar backwards integration master plan goals and focus. He said this would go a long way toward delivering the anticipated benefits, especially in foreign savings and cushioning its impact on operations, among other benefits to the company, stakeholders, and the nation.

He added that the company would continue to deploy and review strategies to ensure efficient delivery.

“This would enable the company to put in place the needed infrastructure for the eventual commencement of full-scale production and ensure that the Dangote Sugar backwards integration for Nigeria project is achieved. In the end, more than $700 million investment will be committed to the backwards integration programme,” he said.

(NAN)