Business Briefs
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THE Panafrican Equipment Group, a recognised leader in providing mining and construction grade equipment has announced the sale of $35 million worth of Komatsu construction equipment to the Dangote Sugar Group. The equipment was handed over to the Dangote Sugar Group on February 4, during a ceremony which took place at Tin Can Island Port Complex, Apapa, Lagos. This landmark sale is Panafrican’s largest within the agricultural sector and in Nigeria and is in line with the Nigerian 2010 transformation agenda to drive growth in the agricultural sector.
Scott McCaw, group managing director, Panafrican Equipment, said, “We are delighted to have been chosen by Dangote Sugar as a major supplier for their agricultural expansion project in sugar production in Nigeria. We look forward to building on this relationship and being their partner for development in Nigeria now and in the future. As the sale includes a long-term maintenance support and parts supply contract, we fully expect to maintain a critical role in helping Dangote achieve their goals,” McCaw said.
Graham Clark, group managing director, Dangote Sugar Refinery, said, “This purchase is in line with the Backward Integration Policy, BIP, of the federal government of Nigeria and National Sugar Development Council, NSDC. This is another milestone in the Dangote Sugar journey as we work towards our master plan to produce 1.5 million metric tonnes of sugar per annum, from locally produced sugarcane in Nigeria,” he said.
The federal government has made backward integration a priority to support the advancement of the agricultural and extractives sectors in Nigeria. Through this investment, PanAfrican Equipment Group and Dangote Sugar Group as private sector stakeholders are also committed to helping the government achieve this goal.
The PanAfrican Equipment Group, operating in Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone is a recognized leader in providing equipment and aftersales support solutions to the heavy mining, light and alluvial mining, cement and quarry, agriculture and forestry, civil infrastructure, and power and energy sectors.
FG, USAID Sign MoU
THE federal government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the United States Agency for International Development, USAID, to expand the exportation of agricultural products by 30 percent within the next three years. Olusegun Awolowo, executive director, Nigerian Exports Promotion Council, signed the MoU on behalf of the federal government, while Michael Harvey, USAID Nigeria director, signed on behalf of the United States Government.
According to the MoU, the expansion of the agricultural export will be implemented under the Nigerian Expanded Trade and Transport programme. The programme, which is expected to promote inclusive economic growth through improved trade and transport competitiveness, has three components. They are transport corridor improvements, which will bring together public and private sector stakeholders to strengthen transport corridor governance on the Lagos-Kano-Jibiya corridor, policy reform and trade facilitation as well as expand export support.
Awolowo described the pact as historic as it would assist the federal government in increasing exports of selected products by 30 percent as well as help to capture the level of the country’s informal trade within the continent. “This is a very important agreement for us because we know that we are missing out in the capturing of trade within Africa formally. The partnership will help to increase the export of selected products by 30 per cent over three years. We have an estimate that informal trade within Africa is about $12bn, which we are not capturing. It is going on every day. For our own non-oil exports, we are capturing $3bn all over the world. So, you can see what we are missing out on. This is very exciting to us. We have also done a report on informal trade, the constraints and the problems we are facing. With this agreement, we will be able to move informal trade to formal,” he said.
Harvey said under the MoU, both parties would come up with export development strategies for priority value chains. He said through jointly sponsored trainings under the NEXTT, export-ready firms would be supported to exploit opportunities in targeted value chains. The partnership, he noted, would provide technical and capacity building support to the network of business development service providers serving non-oil export firms.
Compiled by Anayo Ezugwu
— Feb. 17, 2014 @ 01:00 GMT
Tags: Backward Integration Policy Dangote Sugar Group Dangote Sugar Refinery Graham Clark Memorandum of Understanding Michael Harvey National Sugar Development Council Nigerian Expanded Trade and Transport Nigerian Exports Promotion Council Olusegun Awolowo Panafrican Equipment Group Scott McCaw Tin Can Island Port United States Agency for International Development
