Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc (DSR) is set to pay N18.22 billion as dividends to shareholders for the year ended December 31, 2022.

The dividend payout will translate to N1.50 kobo per share held by shareholders.

Also, the sugar company is targeting the production of over 170,000 tonnes of sugar next season.

The company recorded an impressive turnover of N403 billion, a 46 per cent increase over N276 billion recorded during the same period in 2021, and posted a Profit before Tax (PBT) of N82 billion.

Chairman of the company, Aliko Dangote, said the shareholders are very happy with the way the company is being run, especially in re-investing the profit into the Backward Integration Programme (BIP) for the sugar industry.

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Dangote said: “We are going to play our part in ensuring that Nigeria becomes self-sufficient in sugar within a very short period. We are not the only players, but we will surely play our part. We should be able to produce over 170,000 tonnes which are by far, in the history of Nigeria, the highest to be produced locally.”

Dangote attributed the company’s remarkable performance to the pragmatic approach the management deployed by focusing on continued cost and process optimisation, improved efficiencies in every area of operations, and service delivery to our customers.

He pledged that the management would continue to implement strategic actions to sustain the performance with the support of all stakeholders with complete adherence to the tenets of the Federal Government’s Sugar Master Plan.

Dangote said part of the success recorded by Dangote Sugar was made possible by the management’s continued implementation of the Dangote Sugar Development Master Plan with the rehabilitation and upgrade of the Dangote Sugar Refinery’s Numan operations, facilities and land development, as well as the development of the Nasarawa Sugar Company Limited, the greenfield sugar project, and Tunga in Nasarawa State.

He said: “Concerted efforts were made during the year to rise above the various challenges that came about due to the COVID–19 lockdown which affected project timelines considerably and continued to generally impact economic activities due to its spill-over effect, which also led to the lack of forex to finance most of the project deliverables.

“We however continued to surge ahead supported by the various stakeholders in the industry and government parastatals, with the resolve to ensure that the goals of the Nigeria Sugar Development Master Plan are achieved.”

The Star