Dangote Drags BUA to Anti-Competition Commission for False Allegations

Nigeria’s leading sugar manufacturer, Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc on Wednesday announced it has filed a complaint against BUA Food Plc for false allegations that the company intentionally halt sales of sugar to create artificial scarcity and force prices up.

In the widely publicised allegations first published on ThisDay newspaper, and later on several online media, BUA had claimed Dangote and Flour Mills suspended sales of sugar because the Federal Government had declined 2022 raw sugar allocation.

BUA went on to accuse the two companies of working against the Federal Government’s National Sugar Master Plan established to ensure Nigeria attain self-sufficiency.

However, in a press release, Dangote refuted the allegations and accused BUA of playing dirty.

The press release reads “In compliance with the requirements of the Rulebook of the Nigerian Exchange Limited, DSR wishes to strongly refute the allegations and assertions in their entirety as these false allegations may mislead the market and may give an undue competitive edge to BUA.

“We believe this behaviour exhibited by BUA is worrisome and appears to conflict with the anti-competition rules. Last year, just before the commencement of the Ramadan (the Islamic holy month of fasting), BUA made similar false allegations against the Company that it was engaged in ‘price-fixing’ and not honestly pursuing the Backward Integration Project. In response to this, we published a Press Release (published on the Issuers’ Portal on April 14, 2021) to refute the false allegations and made a formal complaint to the Anti-Competition Commission. Another formal complaint was made to the Commission on February 14, 2022 and we await their actions to address the situation.

“In line with our plan, we have continued to supply Sugar to meet the market’s demand and have made the necessary supply chain and logistics investments/arrangements to ensure there are no risks to our ability to meet the current market demands.

“Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc. remains the highest Sugar supplier in the market today, with over 1.44m MT installed capacity at our Apapa Refinery and we are the only company producing sugar from own grown sugarcane under the Nigeria Sugar Master Plan (NSMP) at the Numan operations in Yola, Adamawa State.

“We remain committed to fair play and good governance and would continue to supply Sugar to the market without interruptions.”