Since July 1988, SOSUMO has launched the first sugar production campaign through the processing of sugar cane.
Some people thought that SOSUMO was not going to last long. She was called a new "white elephant" that was going to ruin the public treasury. It was therefore necessary to fight it from birth.
Had it not been the perseverance of the Burundi government, the unconditional support of the African Development Bank "AfDB", the lead donor of SOSUMO's donors, as well as the technical and financial support of other bilateral partners, the company had sentenced to death by some traditional development partners.
The controversial assessment of the medium-term viability of SOSUMO between the designers of structural adjustment programs and the Government of Burundi led to the design of an action plan negotiated with SOSUMO for the years 1990 and 1991.
A pioneer of the sugar industry in Burundi, SOSUMO was the first and only one to date to achieve more than 80% of the objectives assigned to it in the action plan and for only a short period of two years. The determination of Management and SOSUMO staff to win the bet is at the base of SOSUMO's current performance.
The rapid development of the Company is the fruit of the combined efforts of all partners of SOSUMO: the Government through the Ministry of Supervision and the Service in charge of Public Enterprises "the CEP", the Board of Directors, the team of Management, staff and technical assistance.
We would like to express our thanks to each of these groups for their contribution to the growth of SOSUMO.