The initiatives form part of the activities to mark the
Dangote 2021 Sustainability Week, a purely volunteering process among employees
of the Group, with the theme “Building a Sustainable Future – The Dangote Way”.
The four-day event begins today.
The theme for this year’s Dangote Sustainability Week is in
tandem with the theme of the 76th Session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 76),
which is “Building Resilience through hope to recover from COVID-19, rebuild
sustainably, respond to the needs of the planet, respect the rights of people,
and revitalise the United Nations.” The UNGA is the main policy-making organ of
the global Organisation comprising 193 Members States, among them Nigeria.
This year’s theme and initiatives, according to the
Sustainability Unit at the Dangote Group Head Office at Falomo, Ikoyi, Lagos
State, are focused around six core UN SDGs – SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG three
(Good Health & Wellbeing), SDG four (Quality Education), SDG five (Gender
Equality), SDG six (Clean Water and Sanitation), and SDG 13 (Climate Action).
For the 2021 Sustainability Week, Dangote employee
volunteers and numerous Sustainability Champions are expected to undertake
empowerment and development initiatives in their host communities across the
Group, with activities monitored by the Sustainability Function. The events
will avail sustainability champions across Dangote operations the opportunity
to execute social projects that align with the Group’s community engagement
objectives and with optimum benefits for local beneficiaries.
The Week is aimed to help project the social side of the
Dangote brand, helping to build goodwill and cordiality with host communities,
thereby enhancing the Group’s social license to operate.
There would be empowerment and sustainable activities at
Dangote Cement Cameroon, Dangote Cement Congo, Dangote Cement Ethiopia, Dangote
Cement Gboko plant in Nigeria, Dangote Cement Ghana, Greenview Limited, Dangote
Cement Ibese in Nigeria, NASCON Allied Industries (Dangote Salt), and Dangote
Cement Obajana in Nigeria.
Other participating Business Units include Aliko Dangote
Foundation, Dangote Packaging, Dangote Rice Limited, Dangote Cement Senegal,
Dangote Cement Sierra Leone, Dangote Cement South Africa, Dangote Sugar
Refinery, Dangote Cement Tanzania, Dangote Transport, and Dangote Cement
Zambia.
At the DIL Head Office at Ikoyi, Lagos, the Sustainability
Function, in collaboration with the Group HSSE, Human Resources and Corporate
Communications will organise an Outreach Programme for physically challenged
persons at the Pacelli School for the Blind, Surulere, Lagos; and the Lagos
State owned Old People’s Home, Sabo-Yaba. This will involve donation of basic
food items and other consumables, accompanied by a pep talk and awareness
session on good hygiene and COVID-19 prevention; in line with Goals two and
three of the UN SDGs.
Another proposed initiative at the Head Office is the ‘Waste
as Public Health Risk’ Campaign, in line with Goals three, six and 13 of the UN
SDGs. This will involve an awareness campaign on the impacts of wastes (plastic
wastes and poorly discarded COVID-19 PPEs such as facemasks and hand gloves on
the environment and public health, and how to manage such wastes sustainably.
Proposed beneficiaries include those at the Mammy Market, Falomo, Taxi drivers
at Falomo bridge, and members of Police Officers’ Wives Association (POWA)/
Army Officers’ Wives Association, Falomo, Ikoyi, Lagos State.
As part of this year’s Sustainability Week, the Volunteers
are collaborating with a waste off-taker to station a waste drop-off bin at the
Mammy market. Leveraging this initiative, over 400 women in the market will be
able to drop off recyclable wastes that they have collected from the market or
in their neighbourhoods, and be paid based on the quantity or weight of the
wastes that they drop off. It is therefore an environmental stewardship as well
as wealth creation initiative for hundreds of women that use the market, and
this is to be sustained even after the 2021 Dangote Sustainability Week.
To ensure compliance with the various health procedures and
safety protocols adopted by the Group to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, the
Sustainability Unit, in collaboration with the Group Human Resources and Group
Health, Safety, Social and Environment Departments, also rolled out safety
measures for all participating employee volunteers across all the Business
Units for the Dangote Sustainability Week ending on September 30.
These include zero compromises in terms of compliance with
COVID-19 precautionary measures. (face masks, hand sanitisers, physical
distance, ventilation and up to 50 per cent bus occupancy rate). There is also
reduction in the number of volunteers embarking on field visits (group outreach
programmes) and 50 per cent reduction in the number of persons that would have
participated.
The BUs are also to ensure that vulnerable employees or
those who may be at higher risk of serious illness and those with medical
conditions such as diabetes, heart and lung disease) are advised not to
participate physically in these events.