Flour Mills set to raise capacity of sugar-making unit with $300 million

Food company Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc will ramp up the capacity of its sugar arm with a minimum of $300 million through the development of a brand new plant and 15,000 hectares sugar-cane field in expectation that the expansion will in turn boost Nigeria’s push for self-sufficiency in the sweetener.

The ambition, by estimate, could lift output by 150 per cent, shooting up total land under cultivation from 10,000 hectares, according to its website data, to 25,000.

The cane plantation will be delivered before year end, considering that surveys, preliminary designs and land preparation are in the bag, Flour Mills tells Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) in a regulatory filing on Friday.

Flour Mills’s shares are trading at N28 per unit in Lagos on Friday, yet to record any movement.

Spanning 20,450 hectares in all, the mill and the sugar farm are to be sited at Umaisha Development Area of Nasarawa State, with the land handover to be overseen on Friday by Governor Abdullahi Sule.

“…Neighbouring communities…will be impacted by numerous community improvement projects that have already been earmarked to begin soon, including access roads, electrification projects, primary healthcare and educational facilities and expanded youth job opportunities,” says the document seen by PREMIUM TIMES.

The pursuit of the public good also covers an out-grower initiative to support farmers.

In a leaked document last month, rival BUA Sugar Refinery Limited alleged Flour Mills had forged an alliance with Dangote Sugar, Nigeria’s largest sugar maker, in a grand scheme to fix prices in the sugar market at high levels. Aliko Dangote, chair of Dangote Sugar, has refuted the claim.