Dangote Cement Plc has marked its 2023 Host Community Day with the unveiling of four multi-million-naira empowerment schemes targeted at youths, women, farmers and students in the company’s host communities.
At the well-attended event witnessed by leading traditional rulers, women and youth leaders from the host communities, 103 indigent and brilliant secondary and tertiary institution students across the 17 host communities were given scholarship awards and another set of 30 youths trained on shoe and bag-making were presented to the delight of the royal fathers in Ogun State.
In the same vein, the management of Dangote Cement Ibese presented 60 Weeding Machines procured for farmers to help them clear their farms with ease, given that the communities are majorly agrarian and crop planting has been their means of livelihood.
Not less than 50 women selected from the host communities were also empowered with deep freezers to help them cope with the prevailing economic challenge in the country. Same number of women were also gifted with ultra-modern grinding machines during the celebration of the maiden edition of the Community Day last year.
Recall that the cement company had earlier intervened in a prolonged outage in some of the communities by procuring cables and other materials needed for the restoration of electricity to the affected communities.
Speaking, the Plant director, Azad Nawabuddin noted that the company had stepped up its social interventions, given the prevailing challenging situation across the world.
According to him, businesses and families across the world and in Nigeria have been confronted with socio-economic challenges in the year 2023, pointing out that a lot has happened to test the peoples’ and organisations’ resilience and innovation, but that Dangote Cement has been able to weather the storm and remained afloat mainly due to the unalloyed supports received from the host communities.
In his goodwill message, the Aboro of Ibeseland, Oba Rotimi Oluwaseyi Mulero thanked the management of Dangote Cement, Ibese Plant for its gesture in impacting their host communities positively, noting that the people are happy and the company should not relent in its social interventions.
While describing the social performance profile of the company as very impressive, the royal father stated that with what Dangote Cement has been doing for the people, it behoves on the community leaders and all the residents to reciprocate and ensure peace reigns for the good of all so that the company can do more.
The Ogun State Commissioner for Trade and Investments, Adebola Sofela, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr. Olu Aikulola, commended Dangote Cement for the various interventions in form of empowerment of the people, describing the gesture as a kind of relief to the state government.
He advised the management to sustain it while describing the chairman of the Company, Aliko Dangote as the most progressive entrepreneur in the country.
