Bakhresa Group, an industrial conglomerate led by Tanzanian businessman Said Salim Bakhresa, has begun operations at its Bagamoyo factory sugar factory as part of a concerted effort to fill market supply gaps.
According to The Citizen, the $300-million sugar factory, which is operated by Bagamoyo Sugar Limited, a subsidiary of Bakhresa Group, began commercial production on Wednesday, several weeks after the facility began trial production of sugar, and a year after the group teased stakeholders that production would begin in June 2022.
The first phase of the three-phase project cost the Bakhresa-led conglomerate a total of $110 million, with the company planning to spend up to $300 million to complete all three phases.
The management stated that Bagamoyo Sugar Limited is important for job creation and will have a multiplier effect on farmers in the future. The factory’s first phase will generate between 800 and 1,000 direct jobs.
According to Hussein Sufian, the corporate affairs director of Bakhresa Group, the sugar project, which presently has an installed capacity of 30,000 to 40,000 tonnes per year, is expected to increase to 100,000 tonnes with the completion of all three phases of the project.
“Our factory is expandable and the first phase of the factory will create about 800 direct jobs; depending on the availability of sugarcane, it can go up to an annual production capacity of 100,000 tonnes upon completion of all the three phases,” he said.
Sufian added that the factory is now harvesting 1,200 hectares of sugarcane that they cultivated during the first phase to have more raw materials to drive plant production.
Bakhresa, a leading Tanazanian businessman, is one of Africa’s wealthiest men, with an estimated fortune of more than $600 million in 2015.
Bakhresa’s wealth is primarily derived from the Bakhresa Group, a massive conglomerate with operations in food processing, energy, transportation, and port services.
Four of his sons are executive directors in the organization.
