Emmanuel Thomas
June 10, 2015 – President Dangote Group of Companies, Alhaji Aliko Dangote has promised to empower 40,000 women in the 20 local governments in Lagos state with a total sum of N400 million.
Dangote who made the revelation during a courtesy call on the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode said that the money would be provided via Dangote Foundation.
According to him each of the women will receive a total sum of N10, 000 each to start a small business on their own in the 20 local governments adding that 2,000 women will be empowered in each of the local governments.
Dangote who said he visited to congratulate Governor Ambode on his victory at the poll as well as his swearing in as the 14th Chief Executive Officer of the state said the visit also afforded him the opportunity to assure the Governor of his commitment to finish ongoing projects currently being embarked upon by his company as well as his continued support to initiatives geared towards securing lives and properties.
“I’ve assured him that we really love doing business here, it’s a friendly state for doing business and also to assure him of all the projects that we are doing that we are on course; that is building the largest ever single refinery of 650,000 barrels per day, which is by far more than the consumption of Nigeria and that would satisfy our consumption at least for the next seven to ten years by the time we finish”.
“Also, we are building the largest fertilizer plant of two to three million tonnes of Uranium and Amonia also in the Lekki Free Trade Zone and assure him that we are going to do a Gas Pipeline from Bonny to under the sea, in which when we finish, lagos state will never ever experience blackout, there would be electricity 24 hours a day”.
“There are quite a lot of things that would come along that would create so many jobs. I think Lagos will be one of the fastest growing cities in Nigeria and Africa as a whole. I can assure you that we would do our own bit in terms of your efforts in policing Lagos, for security and whatever the need is, feel free to call us, we would partner with you and whatever you want us to do to make Lagos a better place”, he told reporters.
He said there plans for the Gas Pipeline is already on, saying that process for sand filling is already on course, just as he sought the cooperation of the state government to manage the challenge of logistics as well as thousands of workers who would be engaged on site.
“It’s not a small project. We would have challenge in getting people to work there, because at the height of it, we would have almost close to 38,000 people working at the same location, this is something that we have to partner with the state government. Having 38,000 people on one site, not every one of them will be from the community, others will be from other states, there would be cultural issues and all that, we need to integrate everybody to ensure that the whole thing works out fine,” he said.
