…appoints Mario de Matos to head Agribusiness division
BUA Group, one of Nigeria’s largest foods and infrastructure conglomerates, has once again reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the Federal Government’s backward integration policy in the sugar industry through its sugar subsidiary, BUA Sugar.
This was made known in Lagos recently when the Group announced the appointment of Mr. Mario De Matos – a world renowned sugar expert as Head of its Agribusiness Division.
Until his appointment, Mario de Matos was the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) Country Representative in Nigeria overseeing the USAID-funded APEx project that covered support to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development GES, agro-dealers training, small holders and private sector access to finance, gender and cross-cutting issues in 10 states across Nigeria.
In his comments, Kabiru Rabiu, Group Executive Director of BUA Group, said Mario’s appointment sends a clear message that BUA Group is a serious agribusiness player and is in line with the Group’s commitment to ensuring the effective implementation of the backward integration policy on sugar and the success of the Government’s national agricultural development policy.
“Mario brings with him a deep and extensive knowledge of the sugar industry with substantial experience working across 5 continents in the past 4 decades. I look forward to working with him to build on our strong investments in sugar plantations within the country as well as explore other opportunities for growth within the agribusiness sector,” he said.
BUA Group operates a state-of-the-art sugar refinery in Lagos and intends to commission its second mega sugar refinery in Port-Harcourt by the end of this year. The combined capacity of these two refineries of around 1.5million metric tonnes/annum will make BUA Group arguably the largest single refiner of sugar within Nigeria.
Kabiru further added that BUA Group had invested in large scale sugar projects within the country with its acquisition of Lafiagi Sugar Company in 2008 to deepen local sugar production. The Group also established the Bassa Sugar Company in Kogi state and has completed the acquisition of 50,000ha of land for the purpose of setting up a large-scale sugar plantation. Upon fully coming on stream, these initiatives will add significantly to the development of Nigeria’s local sugar industry.
Mario de Matos boasts 41years of experience working across 37 countries in 5 continents (Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and the Americas). Until his appointment, Mario was the IFDC (International Fertilizer Development Center) Country Representative in Nigeria. As a seasoned agronomist and professional agribusiness executive, Mario’s experience spans various agribusiness areas including general management of sugar cane plantations and other crops in irrigated and dry land conditions with nucleus estates, management of out-growers schemes in Africa and other continents, project appraisals, development of agricultural policies and sustainable development planning for governments in developing countries. He also has extensive experience in large sugar projects’ agricultural management within and outside Africa and spent seven years of his career working on policy and strategy development for the rural sector of new cane sugar estates – participating and providing support and, assistance in environmental & social impact studies.
Prior to joining the IFDC, Mario had also worked and consulted for diverse organizations in the course of his career including Tate & Lyle Sugars USA, Sopex Consulting, Schaffer Global Group (USA & Mali), the European Union, Savana (France), SN Sosuco (Burkina Faso), Madhvani Group UK, Somdiaa (France), Sosuho (Gabon), Semundo saatzucht (Germany), Tidewell Corporation (Portugal), Carsil (Portugal), Best Foods (Australia) , Sodesucre (Cote d’ivoire), Booker Tate UK (Papua New Guinea), Sena Sugar Estates (Mozambique) amongst others.
A thorough-bred and resourceful personality, Mario during his career has held professional membership of the American Society of Cane Technologist’s Association (Louisiana Division), the Australian Institute of Agricultural Sciences, the South African Sugar Technologists Association, the Portuguese Society of Agricultural Sciences and the Geographic Society of Lisbon. Fluent in four languages – English, French, Spanish and Portuguese, Mario also holds a degree in Agricultural Sciences from Escola Superior Agraria Dr Araujo Lacerda, Portugal.