Dangote Sugar’s Backward Integration Project gulps N121 billion

As Dangote Sugar strive to become vertically integrated backward, about N121 billion has been spent by the company under the Dangote Group.

Many large companies and conglomerates conduct backward integration. This is the integration of two or more companies at different places in the supply chain.

Chairman of the group, Aliko Dangote recently said the Sugar Refinery Plc spent the huge sum on equipment, land acquisition, compensation to landowners, consultancy and related services.

The company’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Lagos, Nigeria, offered Dangote the opportunity to divulge the information.

Dangote made it known that with over N30 billion spent on the progress of Savannah Sugar Company, the company remains the only company producing sugar from its own grown sugarcane in Nigeria.

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The richest man in African also said though the company prides in its 32,000 hectares of land in Numan, Adamawa state, progress in the company has been hampered by major setbacks that included flood, community-related issues and most recently clashes between host communities and herdsmen.

Dangote also explained that the company forged stronger to achieve a group turnover of N204.4 billion, a 20.4 percent increase over N169.7 billion recorded in the comparative period in 2016.

The African billionaire revealed that the company posted a profit before tax of N53.6 billion during the period under review, compared with N19.6 billion achieved in 2016, an increase of 173 percent, adding that profit after tax rose by 176 percent to N39.8 billion against N14.4 billion achieved in the comparative period of 2016.