The eradication of the high youth unemployment in the country will continue to be the priority of the Dabgote Group, the company’s Executive Director, Commercial Operations, Hajia Fatima Aliko-Dangote, has said.
The director who spoke during the “Dangote Day” at the just concluded Lagos International Trade Fair said it was only when youths are positively engaged, that the high insecurity problems in the country would fade away.
Fatima said since inception, the desire of the President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, was to assist the three tiers of government in the country, in eradicating poverty.
She said the best way for Dangote Group to eradicate poverty was to contribute to the eradication of youth unemployment in the country.
As the highest employer of labour in Nigeria, outside the Federal Government, she said Dangoted Groups priority was to create more employment opportunities for the teeming Nigerian youths and make them breadwinners of their respective families.
“The desire of our President, Aliko Dangote, is to ensure that Nigerian youths are ably employed, because it is only when this happens that they can also contribute their own quota to the growth and development of the county. And once the youths are also positively engaged, the security challenges of the country will abate,” she argued.
Fatima, further said the Group was passionate about deepening the Nigerian economy through industrialisation, job creation, provision and rehabilitation of essential infrastructure, and the welfare of the citizens.
She said it was the desire of the company to promote industrialisation that informs its management’s decision to become strategic partners with all the major Chambers of Commerce across the nation.
The Group’s investment decisions, she pointed out, were focused on creating values for all stakeholders, adding that the cmpany has invested in several projects meant to create jobs and enhance the rapid industrialisation of the Nigerian economy.
Dangote Cement Plc, she said, remains the continent’s foremost cement producer, with operations in 10 African countries.
“The activities of the cement company, through its multiplier effect, provide direct and indirect employment to millions of people across Africa. Through its corporate social responsibility (CSR) interventions, Dangote Cement has touched the lives of thousands of people in host communities across Africa. The company has built schools, hospitals & clinics, roads, markets, and vocational training centres in host communities,” she stated.
In his reaction, the President of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Micheal Olawale-Cole, said Dangote Group has created jobs more than any known private sector operators in the country.
Olawale-Cole said the foremost indigenous conglomerate has contributed significantly to providing solutions to the problems of unemployment and by extension, to reducing the poverty levels among Nigerians.
He said the decision of the company to venture into oil and gas through the construction of the 650,000 barrels per day refinery would permanently put an end to the issue of petroleum products scarcity in Nigeria and contribute substantially to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and the overall economic growth and development of Nigeria.
Dangote Group, he said, has been at the forefront of job creation, even as its products and services have touched the lives of millions of people across the African continent and beyond.
He enjoined other corporate bodies to emulate Dangote Group in assisting the government, through the provision of infrastructure, even if it must be through a tax credit scheme, introduced by the Federal Government.
