Abdullahi Sule Confirmed As GMD Of Dangote Sugar Refinery
The Board of Directors of Dangote Sugar Refinery (DSR) Plc has confirmed Abdullahi Sule as the substantive group managing director/chief executive officer(GMD/CEO) of the company.
The Company Secretary/Legal Adviser of DSR Mrs. Chioma Madubuko was quoted in a statement to have said that the confirmation was approved by the board at the company’s pre- 12th annual general meeting(AGM) board meeting held on the 21st of June, 2018 in Lagos. The confirmation is seen by market operators as a positive development that would further spur Sule to improve on the company’s performance.
Sule has over 30 years experience in the oil & gas sector, steel production, machine shop operations and the sugar industry, both in Nigeria and the United States of America. He holds a BSc. in Mechanical Engineering and a Master’s degree in Industrial Technology from Indiana State University, United States. He was the Director for Business Development for Africa at Osyka Corporation, in Houston Texas, the MD/CEO of African Petroleum (AP) Plc, and Sadiq Petroleum Nigeria Limited.
He was the Country Manager for Nigeria at Tetra Technologies Inc, Houston, Texas, before he joined DSR in 2007 as Managing Director, and later the Country Director of Fairport Process Equipment UK. Prior to his re-joining DSR as the MD/CEO in December 2011, a position he held until his appointment as the Deputy Group Managing Director of DSR in November 2013, and Ag. GMD in year 2015.
Sule is the Chairman of the Nigeria Sugar Industry Monitoring Group (SIMOG), and a Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers and the Nigerian Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
DSR is a leader in the sugar refining sector of the Nigerian food and beverage industry. With a very large refining facility at Apapa is the major supplier of refined sugar to consumers and industrial markets in Nigeria, and strategically positioned to serve the regional markets through exports of its finished products.
The company had an impressive performance in 2017, posting a jump of 176 per cent in profit after tax to N39.78 billion from N14.4 billion in 2016. Based on the results the board raised its dividend payment by 192 per cent to N21 billion from N7.2 billion in 2016. The dividend is 175 kobo per share, up from 60 kobo per share in 2016.
According to Sule, DSR had invested N121 billion on equipment, land acquisition, compensation to land owners, consultancy and related services in its backward integration.
He said the company would continue to pursue its target to achieve 1.08 metric tonnes of refined sugar annually in six years and eventually 1.5 million metric tonnes in 10 years.
