Aliko Dangote set to commission 200 housing units for IDPs

In a bid to assist the Federal Government to embark on rehabilitation of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), in parts of the insurgency-ravaged areas in the North East, Aliko Dangote Foundation has concluded plans to commission a multi-billion naira housing estate.

Chief Executive Officer of Aliko Dangote Foundation, Mrs. Zouera Youssoufou, said the commissioning of the 200 housing units for IDPs in Borno State, slated for this month, is coming at a time the foundation also completed the construction of a state-of-the-art hostel in Ahmadu Bello University Zaria.

Mrs. Youssoufou, who made the disclosure at an event in Maiduguri, Borno state stated that the housing units are one of the many critical interventions the foundation had mapped out for execution in the North Eastern part of Nigeria to restore life to the area and help IDPs live a normal life again.

Reacting to the development, Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State described Dangote as the single largest benefactor of the IDPs after the federal and state governments.

The governor stated that Dangote’s contribution did not only stop at feeding and clothing the IDPs, which he has been doing over the years, it also stretches to resettling and rehabilitating them, a feat no other private organisation has been able to match.

On the 10 blocks of hostel constructed for the ABU, Group Executive Director, Stakeholders Management and Corporate Communication of the Dangote Group, Ahmed Mansur, said Alhaji Dangote was not resting on his oars, as he plans to up his stakes in the act of philanthropy.

Mansur quoted Dangote as saying: “We have just recently commissioned the Dangote Business School in Kano, the only Business School in Nigeria that is well equipped. We will also be commissioning similar projects at the University of Ibadan, we have done quite a lot in the education system and we are looking to do more.

“Investing in the young people to us means, we are all working together to build a better Nigeria. In equipping Nigerian youths and prepare them for the 21st-century challenges, we established the Dangote Academy in Kogi State, which provides specialized training and management skills for the youths particularly considering the large manpower needed in the manufacturing industries.

“Our ultimate goal is to promote rapid industrialization of Nigeria, using our own local talents.”

It would be recalled that only recently, the Foundation donated a well-equipped secondary school valued at N120 million in Lagos.

The Foundation donated a World Class Business School worth N1.2bn to the Bayero University Kano while building another one in the University of Ibadan, which is due for commissioning too.

Credit: Financial Watch