The conglomerate owned by Alhaji Aliko
Dangote has a current workforce of
26,000 spread across its subsidiaries in
cement, salt and sugar manufacturing
and packaging plants.
The federal government, on the other
hand, has roughly 90,000 civil servants
that are directly employed by the Civil
Service Commission but the figure
comes up to at least 600,000 when
added to those in the military and
paramilitary organisations.
At the Office of the Head of Service of
the Federation (OHSF), LEADERSHIP
Weekend learnt that the Nigerian civil
service has a workforce of 90,000. But
the head, press and public relations
unit of the OHSF, Tope Ajakaiye, said
knowing the entire workforce of the
federal government is a herculean task.
"There is constant flow of members of
staff in and out of the service. As I am
talking to you now, people are retiring
from the service and some are being
employed into the service. Some are
employed in the states and other
agencies of government and it's when
they are documented in Abuja before
we can actually know how many we are
in the service," he said.
"Conservatively, the federal civil
servants with files in the OHSF which
include ministries and departments is
90,000."
He revealed that it is only the various
parastatals of the federal government
that can tell the number of public
servants on their payroll and not the
OHSF.
LEADERSHIP Weekend investigations
revealed that the various projects of
Dangote Group that are in the pipeline
would create at least 150,000 jobs
directly and indirectly, within the next
one year; it is expected to hit one
million in five years.
An official of the conglomerate told
LEADERSHIP Weekend that the
organisation at present employs 26,000
direct employees in the cement, salt
and sugar industries, noting that the
direct workers include drivers of its
articulated trucks. He added that the
indirect workers, who are outside the
26,000-workforce, include "motor
boys". Every truck in the group, he said,
has two "motor boys", who assist the
drivers during their trips.
The official disclosed that with the
company's entry into the agricultural
sector, especially the rice sub-sector,
the target is to raise the workforce to
750,000 and ultimately one million
employees in the long term.
The group founded by Africa's richest
man, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has in its
pipeline, a 300,000-hectare sugar
plantation in Kebbi State, rice
plantation in Kwara State, and a
fertiliser plant and a refinery in the
OKNLG Free Trade Zone in Ogun and
Ondo states.
This is aside the planned expansion of
its three cement plants in Obajana in
Kogi State, Ibese in Ogun State and
Gboko in Benue State, and the planned
Independent Power Plant (IPP).
The petrochemical and petroleum
refining plants situated at OKNLG Free
Trade Zone in Ondo State and the
fertiliser plant which has been moved
from Agenebode in Edo State to the
OKNLG Free Trade Zone are expected to
create 95,000 skilled, semi-skilled and
unskilled jobs directly and indirectly.
This figure is inclusive of 8,000
engineers working on the plants which
are expected to replicate the feat
achieved by the group in the cement
industry, transforming the nation from
being fuel and fertiliser import-
dependent to a producing and
exporting economy.
Also about 75,000 jobs are expected to
be created at the take- off of the sugar
and rice plantations sited in Kebbi and
Kwara states, which are scheduled for
the end of the year.
The factories which cost an estimated $
700 million will also produce animal
feeds from sugar and rice residues will
have 55,000 jobs created in the sugar
factory and 20,000 jobs in the rice
plantation.
During a recent visit to the Kwara State
governor Abdulfatah Ahmed, Dangote
said his company would replicate what
it did in the cement industry by
targeting about 65 million tonnes of
sugar which would create about one
million jobs in the next five years.
The conglomerate's sugar refinery at
Apapa Port, Lagos, is the largest in
Africa and the third in the world with an
annual capacity of 700,000 tonnes of
refined sugar. It also has another
100,000-tonne capacity sugar mill at
Hadeja in Jigawa State.
In the last few years, Dangote Sugar
Refinery has made progress in
strengthening its brand, re-focusing the
business, managing its operational
effectiveness and returning it to the
path of profitability.
The group had also acquired Savannah
Sugar Company located on a 32,000-
hectare in Numan, Adamawa State,
with plans to develop other sugar fields
across the country put at over 300,000
hectares.
There is also an 80,000-hectare
plantation in four local government
areas in Kebbi, and a 50-hectare sugar
plantation and rice mill in Patigi, Edu
local government area of Kwara State.
The group recently signed a jumbo $
3.30 billion (N528 billion) long-term
loan with both local and international
consortium of banks to finance the
construction of petrochemical and
petroleum refining plants situated at
OKNLG Free Trade Zone in Ondo State.
According to the president of the group,
Alhaji Aliko Dangote, the refining and
petrochemical plants will be the largest
in Africa and have been designed to
produce Euro 5 quality standard as
compared to the Euro 3 currently
supplied in the Nigerian market.
Dangote noted that, on completion, the
refined products output would be
gasoline (PMS) of 7.684 million mtpa;
diesel – 5.30 million metric tonnes per
annum (mtpa); jet fuel/kerosene –
3.740 million mtpa; LPG – 0.213million
mtpa; and slurry/fuel oil – 0.625million
mtpa.
The fertiliser plant is designed with a
capacity to produce 2.75 million mtpa
of ammonia and urea; the refining plant
with overall capacity of 400,000 bpd
and the petrochemical plant are to
produce poly propylene to the tune of
600,000mtpa.
This means that besides the elimination
of fuel scarcity, kerosene shortage and
other problems associated with
availability and affordability of
petroleum products in the country,
there would be increased job
opportunities as direct and multiplier
effect of jobs to be created would
engage over 8,000 engineers, according
to LEADERSHIP Weekend findings.
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