Dangote Sugar Refinery is set to complete the acquisition of Savannah Sugar Company Limited after receiving the necessary authorization for the receipt of all the assets, liabilities and business undertakings, and property rights of SSCL. 

The resolution was passed at a court-ordered meeting of the members of Dangote Sugar held Thursday in Lagos, the company said in a notice of the proceedings sent to the Nigeria Stock Exchange. 

The company had earlier sent a disclosure notice to the stock exchange on the acquisition plans, subject to the approval of both company shareholders. Dangote will now assume all legal proceedings, claims and litigation matters pending or contemplated by or against Savannah Sugar, it said.

Dangote will also issue and allot to the shareholders of Savannah sugar, 146,878,241 ordinary shares of ₦0.50 each in the share capital, for the 162,756,968 ordinary shares held by the Scheme Shareholders in SSCL, according to the court order on the deal.

The acquisition comes after Dangote Industries, the parent company of the sugar refinery, recently sold its flour subsidiary. It is part of an expansion strategy for the sugar unit, and the next stage of its backward integration plan to revolutionize the sugar sub-sector of Nigeria’s economy.

Dangote Sugar Refinery serves as an integral part of the Nigerian government’s National Sugar Development Master Plan. In 2012, Dangote Sugar committed to becoming an integrated sugar business, serving local and export markets from integrated sugarcane plantations and factories across Nigeria, over the next 10 years.

The goal is to achieve the capacity to produce 1.5 – 2.0 million tonnes of refined sugar annually from sugarcane plantations covering more than 150,000 hectares of land across a number of sites in Nigeria, according to data on the company’s website. “This will move Dangote Sugar from port-based refining to fully integrated sugar production within Nigeria, thereby helping Nigeria to achieve self-sufficiency in sugar production,” it said.