This is to help meet the yearning of its host communities’ quest for quality education by way of provision of teaching materials and conducive environment.

The donation of the school, which  is meant to serve the Abejoye community in Ibeju-Lekki area of Lagos is coming on the heels of provision of empowerment to farmers in the area whose land falls into the area taken over by the state government and designated as part of the free trade zone.

According to the Dangote Fertilser management, the classrooms, built as part of the Corporate Social Responsibility efforts of the company is to serve as replacement for the Abejoye Primary School which incidentally was part of the free trade zone area allocated to Dangote Fertiliser Limited, but relocated to Abejoye community, consists of staff rooms, head teacher’s office, toilet facilities, power generator and borehole.

Speaking at the handover ceremony in Lagos, the Group Executive Director, Strategy Capital Projects and Portfolio Development, Dangote Industries Limited, Devakumar Edwin pledged the company’s continuous  commitment to the provision of quality education, not only within the host community but in the country at large.

According to him, Dangote’s support for educational development involves assisting host communities to provide sustainable and qualitative education that ultimately reaches all the people.

This, he said, involved active consultation with the host communities stakeholders at stages of development planning, implementation and evaluation.

He said: “We, as a company believe that education is the passport to the future and that an investment in knowledge pays the best interest. We are keen to develop, educate and empower local youth and we are achieving these objectives through various interventions such as the award of scholarship to 50 students selected across our host communities as well as the training of 200 young people in several vocational skill areas such as plumbing, electrification, carpentry, welding and others.

“The second phase of this training programme commenced in September and we are training another batch of 200 local youth draw from different communities covering Ibeju-Lekki and Epe Local Government Area,” he added.

Edwin disclosed that the company embarked on diverse initiatives aimed at developing the local institutions within its host communities to enable them drive their own development initiatives.

“Currently, we have installed 14 boreholes in our host communities between 2017 and 2018 and we conducted regular lab tests to ensure the water from the boreholes are potable. In 2019, we held a Teachers Training Workshop for teachers within the host communities and Epe in conjunction with Lagos State Ministry of Education, to develop the capacities of public school teachers to teach more effectively using 21st century modalities,” he added.

He said, as a socially responsible organisation with the understanding  of the impact of project induced migration on communities, the company organised a project induced InMigration (influx) workshop to sensitise its hosts on the impact of influx and issues related to influx and it is currently supporting the communities to monitor in-migration into host communities.

Edwin noted that the company also distributed palliatives to its host communities to help cushion the effects of COVID-19.

“It is worthy of note that Dangote Fertiliser Limited is currently undertaking a Livelihood Support Programme for persons impacted by the 54km gas pipeline. The programme aims at distributing improved adapted cassava stems to local farmers, building their capacities on farming techniques to improve farm yield and developing local entrepreneurs for cassava by-products,” he added.

The Executive Chairman of Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board, LASUBEB, Mr. Wahab Alawiye-King, who was represented at the event by Mrs. Ebaide Omokore, Director of Projects Department, appreciated Dangote Fertiliser for funding the project, stating that the state government was committed to delivering all-inclusive, quality Basic Education in a conducive environment for learning aided by technology.

He applauded Dangote company for providing the facilities to promote positive learning outcomes, adding that the Board was also carrying out infrastructure upgrade and renovation in many parts of the state, especially within hard-to-reach communities.

Also, speaking at the event, Chairman, Lekki Local Council Development Area, Lagos State, Ogidan Olaitan, commended Dangote Fertiliser Limited for the gesture saying Dangote Fertiliser had proven to be a social responsible company, which had the interest of the company at heart.

“Dangote has always considered the host communities as partners in progress in all its projects around Ibeju-Lekki and we are happy to have Dangote around. His project has further placed our communities on the global map,” he said.

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With a capacity of 3 million tonnes per annum, the plant has been classified as the biggest project in the entire fertiliser industry history in the World.

Siapem of Italy is the Engineering, Procurement and Supervision (EP) Contractor for the project, while Tata Consulting Engineers, India, is the Project Management Consultants (PMC) for the project.

At this time, several critical sections of the plant are going through various stages of pre-commissioning and test-run.

Virtually all the section of the plant such as Central Control Room, Ammonia and Urea Bulk Storage, Cooling Tower, Power Generator Plant, Granulation Plant, have all been completed and are going through pre-testing.

Already, Dangote Feritiser has started receiving gas supply from the Nigerian Gas Company and Chevron Nigeria Limited under the Gas Sale and Purchase was Agreement to supply 70 million standard cubic feet per day (Scf/d) of natural gas to Dangote Fertiliser Limited.

The project, which will create thousands of direct and indirect jobs in construction and related fields, will provide a major boost to the agricultural sector by significantly reducing the importation of the product in Nigeria and ultimately removing the need for imports when plant is in full production.

Group Executive Director, Strategy, Portfolio Development & Capital Projects, Dangote Industries Limited,  Devakumar Edwin, said Nigeria will be able to save $0.5billion from import substitution and provide $0.4 billion from exports of products from the fertiliser plant.

“Thus, the supply of fertiliser from the plant will be enough for the Nigerian market and neighbouring countries,” he said.

Edwin said:  “I am happy that by the time our plant is fully commissioned, the country will become self sufficient in fertiliser production and even have the capacity to export the products to other African countries. Right now, farmers are forced to utilise whatever fertiliser that is available as they have no choice, but we need to know that the fertiliser that will work in one state may not be suitable in another state, as they may not have the same soil type and composition. The same fertiliser you use for sorghum may not be the fertiliser you will use for sugar cane.”

He stated that the Dangote fertiliser project, which is estimated to gulp $2billion is the largest granulated Urea fertiliser complex to emerge in the entire fertiliser industry history in the world, with its three million tonnes per annum capacity.

He pointed out that the fertiliser complex, which is sited on 500 hectares of land has the capacity to expand as it is only occupying a small fraction of the allotted portion.

Edwin added: “The management of the complex are confident that the fertiliser business will deliver reasonable profit to the company and its shareholders as it is projected that population growth and the need for food production will jack up the consumption of Urea fertiliser beginning from 2020 when production of the production would have commenced in earnest.

“The current consumption of Urea estimated at a dismal 700,000 tonnes per annum by Nigerian farmers is said to be due to very poor usage and is believed to be the cause of poor product yield, which threatens food security in the country.

“By 2020, Nigerian population is projected to increase to about 207 million which would lead to increased food production. Estimates points out that around five million tonnes of fertilisers are required per year in Nigeria in the next five to seven years bifurcated into 3.5 million tonnes  of Urea and 1.5 million tonnes of NPK while current production levels in Nigeria are at 1.6 million tonnes by 2019.”

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