Nzoia Sugar Company has received KSh 216 million from the government for routine machine maintenance.
According to Business Daily, the said amount will facilitate maintenance of machines to increase milling capacity and cut down on operational costs.
In an interview, Nzoia managing director Chrispine Ogutu said the company will be shut down to allow the repairs.
“The company will close down from 13th May to allow engineers to repair the machines in order to attain optimum operation
“We had requested KSh 335 million but allocated Sh216 million for normal maintenance of machines and other equipment,” Ogutu said.
Out of the money, he said KSh 150 million will be used to buy spare parts while the rest of money will be used to pay experts.
Ogutu noted that the annual maintenance means good for the company since they have been making losses in the past six years.
He attributed the losses to ageing machinery and low crashing capacity.
“Our crashing level has been too low translating to heavy losses. We mill 17 tonnes of cane to produce one tonne of sugar instead of 10 tonnes of cane to produce a tonne of sugar,” Ogutu added.
Ogutu also disclosed that the factory owes cane farmers KSh 789 million and had paid a total of KSh 1.5 billion to farmers from 2020 to April 2022.
“We have paid farmers over Sh500 million in addition to Sh284 million received from the government last December,” he said.
