1.1 Background
Bagamoyo Sugar Limited (BSL) is a subsidiary company of the Bakhresa Group. Bakhresa Group is one of the leading Industrial Houses in Tanzania, East Africa. Started in a humble manner with a small restaurant in the Port City of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, in mid-seventies, it has now emerged as one of the prominent family owned business group in the region. The Group has its operations spread in Tanzania Mainland & Zanzibar, Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Rwanda, Burundi and in South Africa. Plans are in place to spread its wings to other countries. The Group now boasts of a turnover of more than Eight Hundred Million United Sates Dollars and is a proud employer of more than eight thousand people. There are range of companies under its umbrella and with investments primarily in the Food and Beverage Sector, Packaging, Logistics, Marine Passenger Services, Petroleum and Entertainment. BSL was registered in Tanzania in 2016, under section 15 of the Companies Act of 2014, bearing the certificate of Incorporation No. 131640 (See appendix III).
The Company is a result of the speech by his Excellency, The President of Republic of Tanzania, Dr John Pombe Joseph Magufuli, during his visit to inaugurate one of the Bakhresa factories, in which he promised to allot 10,000 hectares of agricultural land and welcomed the Chairman of the Bakhresa Group for growing sugar cane and set up a sugar factory in that land. Within few months of his announcement, the land was transferred in the name of the new entity- Bagamoyo Sugar Limited. BSL intends to honour the favour given by the President by developing the sugar cane plantation and a greenfield cane sugar factory on the said land. Based on Initial studies, the plant capacity is estimated to be between 1500 TCD expandable to 4,000 TCD (Equivalent to 300,000 tons to 600,000 Tons of cane crushing per year).
The plantation and the industry shall provide employment to about 1,000 people during operation phase. First Schedule in the Environmental Impact Assessment and Audit regulations (2005) and its amendments (2018) have listed all the projects that require EIA (Mandatory List). Agriculture projects utilizing more than 100Ha (the case for this project) is listed in as Type A projects which EIA is mandatory. In order for BSL to fulfil its objective in an environmentally sustainable manner and to comply with the legal provisions, the EIA study has to be undertaken. The EIA study is conducted in accordance with the Environmental Impact Assessment and Audit regulations (2005) and its amendments of 2018, formulated after the Environmental Management Act No. 20 of 2004.
The Regulations give mandate to NEMC to oversee the EIA process, which culminates with an award of the EIA Certificate by the Ministry responsible for Environment. The EIA Certificate is among the prerequisite approvals required before the project takes off. BSL has Commissioned Ardhi University Consultancy Unit to conduct Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) for the proposed development. The EIA study and was conducted between November 2017 and May 2019.
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