LAFARGE signs partnership with FG to rebuild North-East

Lafarge Africa has signed a strategic partnership with the Federal Government Presidential Initiative to rebuild the troubled North-East region of the country which has witnessed enormous destruction from the activities of Boko Haram.

The Chief Executive Officer, Lafarge Nigeria and Benin Republic, Mr. Guillaume Roux, disclosed  after the meeting with the Chairman of the PINE, Prof. Soji Adelaja, that the partnership became necessary because the company has been a major player in the economy of the North-East since 1970, the Punch reports.

Adelaja said Lafarge had over the years been contributing to the socio-economic development of the region through consistent production of good quality cement.

Roux added that the activities of the terrorists affected the operations of the company between November 2014 and April this year as about N2.5bn in revenue was lost in the six-month period.

The Lafarge boss, however, added that with the company’s investment of N100bn in a cement plant in the region, the economy of the North-East would be revived again.

He said as the largest employer of labour in the North East, Lafarge was committed to continue its business operations in the region and in Nigeria as a whole.

Roux said, “We have demonstrated this through the ground-breaking of an expansion project that is meant to grow Ashakacem’s capacity from the current one million metric tonnes to four million metric tonnes.”