Youth unemployment eradication is our priority, says Dangote

*Hajia Fatima Aliko-Dangote, Dangote Group’s Executive Director, Commercial Operations, restates the company’s determination to positively engage the Nigerian youths, address the high unemployment rate, and resolve high insecurity problems in the West African country

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

Hajia Fatima Aliko-Dangote, Dangote Group’s Executive Director (GED), Commercial Operations, has restated the company’s determination to eradicate the high youth unemployment in Nigeria.

Fatima, who reiterated this at the just concluded Lagos International Trade Fair during the “Dangote Day”, said it is only when the youths are positively engaged that the high insecurity problems in the country would fade away.

ConsumerConnect reports the Executive Director, Commercial Operations at Dangote Group also noted that since inception, the desire of Aliko Dangote, President of Dangote Group, was to assist the three tiers of government in the country, in eradicating poverty, and the best way for Dangote Group to do this, will be to contribute to eradicating youth unemployment in the country.

Noting that Dangote is the highest employer of labour in Nigeria, outside the Federal Government, Fatima noted the priority of the Group is 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 said.

According to her, the Group is passionate about deepening the Nigerian economy through industrialisation, job creation, provision and rehabilitation of essential infrastructure, and the welfare of the citizens.

Fatima further said: “It is the desire to promote industrialisation that informs our decision to become strategic partners with all the major Chambers of Commerce across the nation.”

Dangote’s Executive Director, Commercial Operations explained: “Our investment decisions at Dangote Group, are focused on creating values for all stakeholders.

“We have invested in several projects which are meant to create jobs and enhance the rapid industrialisation of the Nigerian economy.

“Dangote Cement Plc remains the continent’s foremost cement producer, with operations in 10 African countries.”

She further noted: “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.”

Responding to Fatima Aliko-Dangote’s, Dr. Micheal Olawale-Cole, President of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), said Dangote Group had created jobs more than any known private sector operators in the country.

Olawale-Cole also acknowledged that the foremost indigenous conglomerate had contributed significantly to providing solutions to the problems of unemployment and by extension, to reducing the poverty levels among Nigerian consumers.

He said that the company’s decision to venture into oil and gas would permanently put an end to the issue of petroleum scarcity in Nigeria and contribute substantially to the GDP and the overall economic growth and development of Nigeria.

Dangote Group, Dr. Olawale-Cole stated, has been at the forefront of job creation even as its products and services have touched the lives of millions of consumers across the African continent and beyond.

The LCCI President, therefore, enjoined other corporate bodies to toe the line of Dangote in assisting the Nigerian Government through the provision of infrastructure, even if it must be through a tax credit scheme, as introduced by the Federal Government.