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Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc, a leading integrated sugar business majority owned by Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote, has announced plans to invest millions of dollars in host communities in northern Nigeria to expand its social intervention programs.
The initiatives will strengthen the firm’s commitment to the region, as it has already completed a number of corporate social responsibility projects, such as providing classroom blocks, scholarships, water schemes, rehabilitating roads and opening up health centers.
It has also aided in the provision of electricity by donating a 300KVA generator to the Gyawana community and a 27KVA generator to the Lamurde community.
The decision to scale up social intervention programs is a strategic effort to repay communities in Adamawa and Nasarawa states where Dangote Sugar has significant programs under way. The projects come on the heels of the billions of dollars in raw sugar production investments that have been made across Nigeria in line with the National Sugar Master Plan.
Earlier this year, the world’s largest integrated sugar company announced plans to invest $1 billion in sugar expansion projects in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy and primary market, reducing the country’s sugar imports by 40 percent and creating job opportunities for all, particularly youths.
Dangote Sugar is a subsidiary of Dangote Industries Limited, a Nigeria-based multinational conglomerate with a diverse and fully integrated industrial portfolio that includes cement plants, fertilizer plants, sugar refineries, and petrochemical refineries.
Through its chairman, Dangote, Africa’s richest man, the company announced that it is creating thousands of job opportunities for Nigerians with 78,000 hectares of farmland in Nasarawa and 32,000 hectares in Adamawa.
Dangote recently revealed that Nigeria could earn up to $700 million in foreign exchange per year from the BIP scheme, warning that the scheme must be protected to insulate the Nigerian economy and create jobs.
“If the national sugar master plan is strictly followed and the players follow the rules, the country will benefit because Nigeria will save between $600 million and $700 million in forex annually,” he said.
