Kilombero Sugar details impact of expansion project

Dodoma. Kilombero Sugar Company (KSC) said at the weekend that it was committed to supporting the government’s efforts in economic recovery beyond Covid-19.
The KSC’s director of corporate affairs, Mr Ephraim Mafuru, said during the 20 Conference of Financial Institution (CoFI) here that the firm was currently executing its expansion strategy as a way of creating the much-needed jobs to get the economy up and moving.
“We are set to begin our expansion project which will double the company’s contribution to the economy from the current Sh340 billion to an estimated of Sh700 billion per year,” he said.
The expansion project will require an initial new investment of over Sh550 billion.
It includes building a new facility that will double the company’s sugar processing capacity and reduce sugar shortages in the country.
“This is among the company’s strategies in achieving its vision of reducing the country’s reliance on imported products and ensuring self-sufficiency in sugar by 2025,” he said.
The expansion project will raise sugar production from 126,000 tonnes to 271,000 tonnes per year. This will see the government saving about $70 million in foreign exchange that is currently spent on sugar imports.
Mr Mafuru - who was speaking as a panellist at the conference in the topic on scaling up private sector - said the new facility will, therefore, be a key enabler in supporting the government’s economic recovery strategies.
“Specifically, through participation of the private sector in industrialization, we aim to continue contributing to the livelihoods of the communities around us and to the country’s economic growth,” he said.
He said that in addition to doubling their contribution to economic growth, the expansion will create 2,000 permanent and 2,440 contracted employment opportunities, as well as producing 10-15MW of electricity generated from renewable fuel available for the Tanzanian grid through a suitable Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Tanesco.
Mr Mafuru added that the expansion is expected to increase the amount of sugar cane sourced from growers by nearly an additional one million tonnes per year from the current 600,000 tonnes per year by 2026/27 - thus stimulating the development of the agricultural sector and further improvements in development infrastructure and social services in surrounding communities.
“The expansion project is projected to take 25 months to complete, with an estimated completion date of July 2023. The project will benefit a variety of industries, including construction, agriculture, manufacturing and logistics,” he said