BUA Group is working towards unveiling its 10,000 tons cane per day (tcb) sugar refinery in the first quarter of the year.
Senior General Manager overseeing the construction of the sugar plant, Abdulrasheed Olayiwola,who spoke at the factory site in Lafiaji, Kwara State on Tuesday, told reporters that the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of BUA Group, Abdul Samad Rabiu, has put every facility in place, including equipment and a three-mile private airstrip capable of receiving wide-bodied aircraft to ensure that the inauguration date is realised.
He said the BUA Sugar Refinery is not like any other in the country, saying the BUA plant is a four-in-one entity that has incorporated in it, a sugar mill, an ethanol production unit, the refinery and a power plant of 35 Megawatts power generation capacity.
He said the sugar refinery is sitting on a 20,000 hectres of land space that has been segmented into functional departments, including the sugar plantation, housing estate, health centre and school and a vast irrigation scheme designed to provide water where it is needed.
Olayiwola said BUA Group has embarked on a comprehensive community road network, including the provision of a 7.5 km dual carriageway as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme, saying over 15 communities were already benefiting from the existing schemes, including the National Youth Corps Camp where a sports facility has been provided.
He said the sugar refinery is projected on completion to offer 5,000 direct jobs and well over 10,000 indirect employment within and outside the catchment area.
The Plant Engineer, Labaran Saidu, said what BUA Group has factored into the Lafiaji project is not just a Sugar Refinery, but the development of a new integrated city finished with modern infrastructure and a 200 unit housing estate. The ethanol plant, he said will produce about 20 million litres of fuel, adding that off-takers were already on queue for the product.
BUA’s Group Head, Corporate Communication, O’tega Ogra, said BUA GROUP has an underlying policy of seeing all its projects to completion, saying the Lafiaji sugar refinery project will not be an exception.
He said as it is customary with its other projects in Port Harcourt, Okpila in Edo State and others, BUA GROUP is applying the best technology available in the Lafiaji sugar plant, assuring that with the plant at almost 60 per cent completed, the first quarter deadline already set by the Chairman/CEO, will not be exceeded.