Dangote Earmarks N30 Billion Institute For Local Artisans

Irked by the dearth of artisans in the construction sector, the Dangote Group is to spend about N30 billion in the next five years in training 500,000 artisans in the construction industry.

The move according to the President/ Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, is to solve the skills challenge in the country as well as create jobs.

Addressing over 3,000 participants at the Lagos Business School Owner Managers’ programme at the campus in Lagos, he noted that there was the need to develop programme that would allow Nigerian artisans to grow as current realities show that most of the builders and artisans come from Togo or Ghana.

He said: “The building sector allows room for a lot of artisans such as buildersand plumbers We will spend about N6billion, which is to just train people and make sure that we have enough manpower in the system”.

He explained that the goal would be achieved through an institute that would be guided by a curriculum and award of certificates to 100,000 trainees yearly.

“We are lacking a lot of artisans and going to launch an institute, which I am the chairman and train 100,000 technicians, such as bricklayers, plumbers and so on per annum. In five years, we would have trained 500, 000 people. Anybody that finishes will be given a certificate. The programme will spread round the country to create jobs every year”, he said.

According to him, the group spends about N2billion yearly as a form of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in training over 1,000 engineers, technicians and other artisans while 70 per cent of the trained personnel were absorbed into the group.