Dangote Cement signs five-year CDA with host communities
Dangote Cement signs five-year CDA with host communities
A leading cement manufacturer in Nigeria, Dangote Cement Plc, has signed a five-year Community Development Agreement (CDA) with its Ibese plant host communities.
Dangote Cement, Ibese Plant Director, Mr Azad Nawabuddin, disclosed this in a statement signed by Mr Francis Awowole-Browne, Media and Communication Relations Personnel, Dangote Industries Limited on Thursday in Lagos.
Nawabuddin said the decision to sign the agreement was a demonstration of the company’s commitment to human capital and infrastructural development of its host communities.
He added that the move was to underpin the fact that the company was irrevocably committed to the well-being of the residents in all the communities.
He said that the agreement signalled a new dawn for both the company and the host communities in the execution of the laid-out social investment projects under the company’s Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) activities.
Nawabuddin said the company signed the first CDA in 2013 that marked the beginning of concrete infrastructural and social support in employment, education, health, and training among others to improve the standard of living in host communities.
He said the new CDA is an improvement as it was fashioned to surpass previous performance through positive impact on the various stakeholder groups, especially the vulnerable in the communities.
He added that the document stated clearly the consultative framework for engagements, grievance management and obligations of both the plant and the host communities for mutual growth and development.
The Dangote Cement Plant Director, affirming the company’s commitment to fulfilling all its obligations, charged the host communities to keep their end of the bargain to foster all-around development.
The traditional leader of the Aga-Olowo, Olu of Aga-Olowo, Oba Kayode Kusoro, expressed his community’s appreciation to the management of Dangote Cement for its warm reception and commitment to CSR for the host communities.
In commending the company’s openness and transparency in the all-inclusive agreement signing process, he expressed hope that the company would keep faith with the letters of the agreement.
Also, the traditional leader of Imasayi, Olu of Imasayi, Oba Lukmon Kuoye, said that the signing of the new agreement was a clear departure from the past exercises as all representatives of the host communities and stakeholders were involved in the review and signing of the fresh agreement.
He stated that what the communities owed Dangote Cement was a continuous collaboration to ensure that the company operates in an environment devoid of crisis which he promised the royal fathers would work towards.
Remarking, the Aboro of Iboroland (traditional leader of Iboroland), Oba Daniel Salako, expressed his satisfaction with the fresh agreement which he considered to be better and more inclusive than the previous ones.
