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"Last year we started exporting our products to Ghana and some landlocked countries such as Mali and Guinea through Senegal as part of our expansion drive," the company's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Abdullahi Sule, said.
"We have already started the construction of a factory in Algeria, we hope to commission it in 2009," Sule told investors and stockbrokers on Tuesday while presenting the "Facts Behind the Figures" at the bourse.
He said the company, which was under the Food/Beverages and Tobacco sub-sector of the bourse, had bought 75% stake in Savannah Sugar Company, which was established by the Nigerian government in 1980 but later became moribund and was then privatised.
Dangote started in 1978 as a family sugar trading company and was listed on the NSE in 2007.
Its core business is sugar refinery and marketing, exporting to countries in the West Africa sub-region and the North Africa.
It is strategically located in Apapa, the industrial hub of the commercial city of Lagos, South-west Nigeria, enjoying the proximity to the sea ports at Tin Can Island and Apapa.
According to the CEO, the company's fortune has increased over the years with production rising to 469,000 from 434,000 tonnes in the first six months of 2008 due to "an efficient and focused management team".
Sule also said the company's financial standing was healthy, with turnover for the first six months of the year reaching 43 billion naira as against 40 billion naira recorded within the same period last year (US$1=118 naira).
Eight billion naira was paid as dividends in 2007, increasing to 10.2 billion naira in the first six months of 2008.
"We hope to sustain and surpass current profitability. This is a company that has moved from a net borrower to a net depositor of funds. For our expansion drive we already have in the kitty US$150 million to finance the Algeria project. As far as resources are concerned, the company is on a sound financial footing. We do not intend to raise more money from the market," Sule said.
Nigeria, according to the CEO, has a very low sugar consumption rate compared to other countries within the West Africa sub-region.
Nigeria has 7.5 kilogram per capita consumption rate, Ghana has 15 kg while Algeria has the highest consumption rate in Africa with 35kg.
Brazil, the world's largest producer of sugar, consumes 56kg per capita.
An official of the NSE, who stood in for the Director-General, Binus Yaroe, noted that the sugar market in Nigeria is huge because of its population of 140 million.
He commended the company's initiative of expanding its market beyond Nigeria.
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