Living up to its billing, a member of Dangote Group — the Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc (DSR) — has scaled up its Corporate Social Responsibilty (CSR) programmes in host communities of Adamawa and Nasarawa States where its backward integration projects are located.
The Group is investing hugely in raw sugar production as part of the Federal Government Sugar Master Plan.
Persecondnews reports that billions of naira has been expended on social intervention schemes around the communities hosting DSR Numan in Adamawa, and Tunga Sugar Project in Nasarawa.
The company, in a statement from the Corporate Communication Department of the company made available to Persecondnews, disclosed that with 78,000 hectares of farmland in Nasarawa, and 32,000 hectares in Adamawa, it is creating thousands of employment opportunities for Nigerians.
“National Sugar Development Council (NSDC) has developed a road map for the realization of self-sufficiency in the sugar sector within a short time. Thus, the Nigeria Sugar Master Plan (NSMP) gave birth to Sugar’s Backward Integration Policy (BIP).
“Currently, over 600 workers are being engaged, while 90MW is to be generated in the Dangote Sugar Project in Tunga, Nasarawa State.
“The Dangote Group is the second largest employer of labour after the federal government,” it said.
The statement quoted the Chairman of the Dangote Sugar Refinery, Aliko Dangote, as saying Nigeria could rake in foreign exchange of up to $700 million yearly from the BIP scheme.
He warned that the BIP scheme must be protected to insulate the Nigerian economy and create jobs.
Dangote said if the national sugar master plan is followed strictly and the players follow the rules, the country will be better as it will save between $600 million and $700 million annually in foreign exchange
Some of the CSR projects executed include the provision of blocks of classrooms, scholarships, water schemes, rehabilitation and opening up of road networks, and construction of health centre, among others.
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