Sahara Group to Work with UN, EU to Eradicate Poverty
Marks 20th anniversary with CSR projects
Ejiofor Alike closely with governments and stakeholders in countries where it operates, with UN, EU, SDG-F and other partners to enhance poverty eradication.
According to him, Sahara’s intervention projects will be coordinated by the Sahara Foundation, the group’s corporate responsibility vehicle, adding that the foundation’s focus areas include education and capacity building, environment, health and sustainable community development.
“Sahara has so much to be grateful for having started from very humble beginnings 20 years ago to becoming one of Africa’s leading energy conglomerates. To mark this milestone, Sahara will initiate and support more projects that would help bring the world closer to achieving the sustainable development goals by 2030,” Cole said.
“Over the past 20 years, probably the greatest source of inspiration for Sahara is knowing that we have stood as a sure source of inspiration for a generation of young men and women, especially the less privileged of our society, by giving them opportunities to fulfill their dreams, nurturing hope and belief in themselves that they can attain any goal they set for themselves, and we have seen lives transformed for the better,” Cole added.
Sahara’s growth has seen it extend its vision of “bringing energy to life” from Lagos, Nigeria to other locations in Africa, Europe, Middle East and Asia. The group has operating entities at these locations that are leading players in the power, downstream, midstream, upstream and infrastructure sectors.”
In recognition of its contribution to supporting sustainable development, Sahara was in 2015 inducted into the private sector advisory board of the SDG-F where it plays a critical role in the development platforms for effective global collaboration towards realising the SDGs.
Describing some of the impact areas the foundation would be involved in this anniversary year, Cole said Sahara, in collaboration with the SDG-F and the Kaduna State Government, would unveil the Food Africa Project aimed at driving economic empowerment and poverty alleviation for over half a million people through food security.
The project, he said, would achieve this through robust optimisation of the entire food value chain and keying into the school feeding programme of the state government.
Cole stated that following the Foundation’s highly successful campaign with the Carter Center to eradicate the guinea worm scourge in Nigeria, both organisations will tackle the rising menace of water borne diseases at various camps for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
“Sahara Foundation in partnership with the Carter Center will be donating boreholes to the camps, while some individuals in the camps will be trained on how to deploy basic toolkits to rectify minor faults on the machines. This will promote sustainability of the project and empower the people so trained,” he explained.