Debt Crisis Looms for Poorer Nations Most Vulnerable to Climate Change

In Its Own Sweet Time: Sustainability And Innovation In South Africa’s Sugar Industry

Uganda expects sugar output to rise 11% this year as three
mills under construction in the country’s northern and eastern regions come
online, officials say.



“Production is currently at 450,000 metric tons. When three
new factories that are under construction and development start producing, we
will go up to a half a million metric tons,” Uganda’s Trade and Industry
Minister Amelia Kyambadde says in an interview with FORBES AFRICA.



The East African country is only able to consume 360,000 tons per year, leaving a surplus for export in a region that’s grappling with deficits. Uganda exports sugar to the DRC, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan and Tanzania.



Underpinning the country’s sugar sector are millers,
including Kakira Sugar Works, the largest producer. Sugar Corporation of Uganda
Limited – Lugazi and Kinyara Sugar Works are the other largest players.



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/cover-story/2019/04/02/the-industrialists-who-have-tasted-sucrose-and-success/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="The Industrialists Who Have Tasted Sucrose And Success (opens in a new tab)">The Industrialists Who Have Tasted Sucrose And Success</a>



While this growth in output is imperative, the government is
keen to see diversification in production to include industrial sugar as the
country seeks to save its foreign exchange, Kyambadde says.&nbsp; 



“I see a bright future,” she adds, “but producers also need
to diversify and produce the finer sugar. All of them are producing the bigger
crystals but finer sugar for production is what we would like them to start
producing.



“At the moment, we are importing that finer sugar. 



“So that has been our concern with them, that why don’t you
diversify and start producing the sugar that’s ready for production,” she says.



But these efforts have largely been stalled by Uganda’s high
power tariffs, according to Kyambadde. 



“They (millers) say from this level, the ordinary sugar,
they have to have another line that would make it finer. That means the
consumption of power definitely is higher,” she says. 



“So that is one of the challenges; that the costs of
production are so high,” she said, adding that new power plants will reduce
costs to an ideal five US cents/KW.



Uganda is also looking to establish new laws to govern the
sugar sector but disagreements over exclusivity clauses relating to purchase of
cane from farmers abound. 



In March, President Yoweri Museveni declined to assent to
the Sugar Act of 2016 that was passed by Parliament in November last year. His
spokesman, Don Wanyama, says the president is concerned about the proximity of
millers.



“It’s going to antagonize the old sugar players,” Wanyama says. “It’s (the act) not going to be assented to,” he says.



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/agriculture/2019/01/24/ugandan-firm-uses-blockchain-to-trace-coffee-from-farms-to-stores/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Ugandan Firm Uses Blockchain To Trace Coffee From Farms To Stores (opens in a new tab)">Ugandan Firm Uses Blockchain To Trace Coffee From Farms To Stores</a>



“We hope this issue will be corrected now that the bill is
being sent back to parliament,” says Jim Kabeho, the Chairman of Uganda Sugar
Manufacturers Association, the largest industry lobby. 



“Farming constitutes 60 percent of our costs; yet someone
without a single tractor and using cheap old machinery just wants to come and
buy from your farmers,” he said in a phone interview.



Kabeho, also a director at Kakira and a board member at
regional business lobby, the East Africa Business Council, warns that Uganda
has lessons to learn from Kenya which allowed “market distortions” in the name
of allowing competition only to end up with less production and having to rely
on imports.



Yet for Ibrahim Baliitamuto, a cane grower in the eastern
district of Mayuge, all that matters is price stability.



&nbsp;“It’s very easy to
make a fortune from sugarcane if the prices offered by factories are not
changed very often,” Baliitamuto says. 



“You can’t tell me about growing maize (corn) when I have a
choice of sugarcane.”



Kyambadde says in returning the law to parliament, the
president was being mindful of the big players.



“He thinks that the output of the small players is negligible, but we are still discussing that,” she says.



-Joseph Burite

madhvani3

Uganda Sees 11% Growth In Sugar Output This Year

Aliko Dangote is an Africapitalist who has been nominated for FORBES AFRICA’s Person of the Year every year since 2011 and now he has won. The $21.6-billion entrepreneur believes in Africa forging its own future in business and is leading the way.
Heralded by some as the face of the new Nigeria, Africa’s richest man is looking beyond cement, sugar and flour – the three commodities that built his fortune – to the oil business. In April, he announced $9 billion in financing from a consortium of local and international lenders to construct a private oil refinery and fertilizer and petrochemical complex in the country. In August, he announced plans to invest $1 billion in commercial rice farming and modern rice mills. His publicly traded Dangote Cement is also grabbing new markets in Africa, with $750 million in new plants planned for Kenya and Niger.
Dangote is also cementing his position as the continent’s most generous individual after donating $1.2 billion of his personal fortune to the Dangote Foundation.
In 2014, shares from his listed companies were transferred into the foundation, which he founded in 1994 to support initiatives in education, health and youth empowerment.
The Dangote Foundation runs a cash transfer program which complements the Nigerian government’s poverty alleviation programs. It disburses small grants to poor rural women and youths who want to start small businesses. The foundation also funds the construction of university libraries and hospitals across Nigeria.
This year, Dangote also led the way in funding the fight against Ebola in West Africa. He first gave $5 million to the Nigerian government’s containment efforts and then added a further $3 million to the African Union fund to help Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
Dangote made his first fortune more than three decades ago when he started trading commodities with a loan from his powerful uncle. An aggressive industrialist, his company is one of the largest employers in Nigeria and has four of its 13 subsidiaries listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
The flagship of the group, Dangote Cement, is the largest listed company in West Africa, accounting for around 30% of the NSE in terms of market capitalization. It is also the first Nigerian company to be on the Forbes Global 2000 companies list.
In 2012, Dangote Cement opened its newest cement plant, with an injection of $1 billion to boost Nigeria’s capacity by 10 million metric tons per annum (MMTPA). Strategically positioned at Nigeria’s largest economic hub in Ibese, near Lagos, the plant was expected to generate 7,000 jobs and transform the import-reliant sector into an export and revenue-generating industry.
As infrastructure has always been Nigeria’s weakness, Dangote announced in April that he was planning a $7-billion investment program for the next four years. It will focus on Nigeria’s power, petrochemical and mining sectors – a move set to position the company as an independent power producer that will supply 2GW of power to the national grid.
In 2013, the Dangote Group signed a $3.3-billion loan agreement with a consortium of banks. This was in line with plans to construct the continent’s biggest petroleum oil refinery and a petrochemical plant in Nigeria. With the refining capacity expected to reach 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day and producing a variety of fuel products from local crude resources, Nigeria would cut its volumes of imported fuel products by an astounding 50%.
In the same year, the Dangote Group launched the integrated mega sugar plantation and sugar refinery projects in seven Nigerian states.
“Our mission is to, through industrialization, reverse the historical trend of the export of foreign exchange and jobs and replace it with foreign exchange conservation and job creation,” said Dangote at the loan signing ceremony in Abuja.
FORBES AFRICA applauds his relentless drive, aggressive ambition and contribution to the continent’s economic trajectory.
<h4>What The Judges Say 
Aliko Dangote is a lion of Africa in terms of business. He is second to none when it comes to investing in Africa, not just Nigeria. He is also a capitalist with a big heart. He puts his money where his mouth is and his foundation is a step forward for a man who wants to make a difference on 
the continent.</h4>

Tag: Sugar

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

In Its Own Sweet Time: Sustainability And Innovation In South Africa’s Sugar Industry

Uganda Sees 11% Growth In Sugar Output This Year

The Lion Of Africa