Mining communities hail Dangote Cement’s CSR
Host communities around the Dangote Cement plant at Obajana in Kogi State have commended the Dangote Cement Plc for its numerous support in the form of corporate social responsibility (CSR).
The four kingdoms, who are the host communities, said the Dangote Cement has liberated them from economic and social backwardness, but adding that “like Oliver Twist we are still asking for more.”
The kingdoms are Apata, Iwaa, Obajana and Oyo.
A statement from the General Manager, Corporate Communications, of the Dangote Group, Mr. Sunday Esan, mentioned the Oba of the Oyo community, Solomon Obahawu as thumbing up the Dangote Cement for resettling the people and providing other utilities that have made life meaningful to them.
Oba Obahawu listed the philanthropic activities of the Dangote Cement Plc as including the provision of yearly scholarship running into millions of naira, construction of school and hospital, as well as the construction of a concrete road.
Other support from the Dangote Cement, the royal father said, were the provision of job opportunities for indigenes and awarding the people contracts at the factory. He, however, urged the company to scale up job opportunities being offered the people.
Commending the company for the hospital, he urged the government to support Dangote Cement by providing drugs and more professional health workers.
The statement disclosed that Dangote has expended over a billion naira in CSR to the Obajana plant communities.
Speaking also, the Oba of Iwaa, Francis Oke Migbole, said the Dangote Cement had started an economic empowerment programme for women in Iwaa, urging that the effort should be sustained.
Migbole commended the company for its ongoing hospital project in the Iwaa kingdom, but pointed out there was the need to speed up and complete the project.
He thanked the President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, for awarding the people contracts in the factory to enable them feed their dependants.
In the same vein, the Oba of Obajana, Idowu Isenibi, described as economic development the ongoing construction of the 42.5 kilometre Obajana-Kabba concrete road by the Dangote Group, saying it was the first of its kind in the history of Nigeria.
He said, “I strongly believe that our economy which has been paralyzed for a long time will come back to normal. The high rate of insecurity on this road will be drastically reduced. Our farm produce that has been down will bounce back and those plying the road will not have difficulties.”
Oba Isenibi listed some of the benefits the communities have been enjoying from partnership with the Dangote Group to include the Dangote Academy Training School, presence of banks, roads, an agro sack factory, an air strip, employment opportunities and electricity.
He also announced that the Dangote Group had just provided two electric transformers for the Obajana community.
“Just the way God gave Jesus to Christians and Prophet Muhammad to Muslims, he also brought Aliko Dangote to help Nigerians,” he said.
The Oba of Apata, Federick Balogun, said he would do everything possible to ensure that the Dangote investment in his territory was protected, adding that the company has provided employment, education, water and employment, among other things, for the community.