• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Excitement in Ibeju-Lekki as Dangote refinery, NDE train youths on vocational skills

Dangote refinery

The ancient town of Ibeju-Lekki came alive on Wednesday, March 20, as the Dangote Group, collaborating with a team of trainers from the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), the academia, and the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), stormed the sleepy town.

It was a day to flag off a six-month impactful and life-changing vocational and skill acquisition training programme, aimed at empowering youth and positioning them to take advantage of the emerging opportunities ahead of the planned commencement of operations of what would be one of the largest refineries around the world.

The venue was Ibeju town hall, situated a few kilometres from the popular Lekki Free Trade Zone (LFTZ) in Lagos. The hall was filed to capacity, as the youths drawn from Ibeju, Lekki, Eleko, Akodo, Epe and other contiguous communities of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals Plant, came in their numbers.

They were joined by eminent personalities from the public and sectors of the economy, including first class traditional rulers in Lagos, among them; the Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu, Oloja of Epe Land, Kamorudeen Animashaun among others from Lekki.

Also present were array of local chiefs (Baales) who, together with the Lagos State government and the first class monarchs, have worked over the years to douse the initial tensions in the area, paving the way for the now harmonious relationship between the Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals and the host communities.

According to Devakumar Edwin, Group Executive Director (GED), Dangote Group, the vocational training scheme, covering plumbing, masonry, welding, iron bending, auto mechanics and electrical works, which is a way of sustaining the convivial relationship into the future by way of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), would inculcate requisite skills in the young men and women and make them marketable.

The initiative, Edwin added, is a demonstration of Dangote refinery’s commitment towards capacity building and youth empowerment.

He explained that the scheme is geared towards instant value addition to the lives of the youths and their communities, stressing that the company will continue to invest in projects that add value to the lives of the people in communities hosting its facilities across the country.

“At Dangote Industries Limited, our corporate social responsibility projects are centred around the development and wellbeing of the people, especially our host communities. In Ibeju-Lekki, we have executed several projects that are already enhancing the lives of the people. We have provided boreholes for all the communities, classrooms for the local school, and we just awarded scholarships to 51 secondary school students.

“This programme is another level of our intervention as it is targeted at providing vocational skills to the teeming youth population in our host communities. The youths are veritable assets in any society and the quality of the youths determines the outlook of tomorrow’s society. Therefore, an investment in developing vocational skills among youths will yield the desired results,” said Edwin.

Also speaking, Giuseppe Sur-ace, Chief Operating Officer (COO), Dangote Refinery, said the free training programme provided a lifetime opportunity for the youths to better secure their future. According to him, those of them who will turn out exceptional at the end of the training could stand a chance of working with the company in areas where they show competence.

On his part, Frank Ibi, manager, Projects Certification and Authorisation Division (PCAD), NCDMB, who represented Simbi Wabote, the board’s executive secretary, lauded Dangote refinery for the initiative. He explained that NCDMB was a part of the scheme because it is geared towards promoting domiciliation of value-adding activities and utilisation of Nigerian human and material resources.

The Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu described the training as unprecedented, particularly because the company though yet to start operation, is already empowering the youths from the area to make them employable.

The monarch, who encouraged the youths to utilise the skills they will acquire through the training programme, commended the Dangote Group for “unwavering support to community development in Lagos.”

Oba of Epe Land, Animashaun on his part, commended Aliko Dangote, chairman of the Dangote Group for bringing development to the EPe-Ibeju-Lekki communities through his investment in refinery and petrochemicals and urged other Nigerians to emulate Dangote by investing locally to lift the economy and the people at the grassroots.

Ogidan Olaitan, chairman, Lekki Local Council Development Area (LCDA) and the chief host, said the inauguration of the skills acquisition programme was a fulfillment of Dangote’s promise to the host communities and the beginning of better things to come.

Lasis Adeyemi, one of the benefitting youths, said he was excited at the opportunity to learn a skill. He believed upon certification by the NDE, he would stand a better chance of either working in any company or establishing his own business.

 

JOSHUA BASSEY