Nigeria's sole Dangote Sugar Refinery is being refurbished to raise annual capacity to 1.4 million tonnes from one million tonnes, a spokesman said on Friday. This is the third time the plant, which was designed and built by the UK's Tate & Lyle to process imported raw sugar from Brazil, would be refitted since it was commissioned in 2000 with an initial capacity of around 600,000 tonnes.
Last year the refinery near the Lagos seaport of Apapa was refurbished to raise capacity to one million tonnes after its first expansion in 2003 to 750,000 tonnes.
The spokesman said work was also progressing to transform the formerly state-owned Savannah Sugar Company, in which Dangote Group acquired a controlling stake in 2003, into a world-class integrated plantation that would also produce finished top quality refined sugar.
Dangote plans to develop four integrated sugar plantations in Nigeria with a total capacity of 600,000 tonnes per annum by end 2007, a company statement said.