The current recession rocking the Nigerian
economy has hit one of the biggest employers of labour in the country outside
of the government as the Dangote Group, belonging to Africa’s richest man,
Aliko Dangote, has fired 48 members of staff.
Punch gathered that
those sacked were made up of 36 expatriate and 12 Nigerian workers from the
group’s headquarters and one of the subsidiaries, Dangote Cement Plc.
Though no official of
the group was willing to speak on the matter on Sunday, one of our
correspondents gathered from highly placed sources that the decision to sack
the workers was not unconnected with the current high cost of running business
in the country occasioned by the unavailability of foreign exchange and the
unprecedented hike in the naira to dollar exchange rate.
It was further gathered
that the huge amounts in foreign currencies being paid to the expatriate
workers had become a burden on Dangote due to the steady depreciation in the
value of the naira and the difficulties of raising enough dollars.
Consequently, the
industrialist, according to sources, has decided to replace the expatriates
with Nigerians, who have acquired the requisite experience on the job, as
paying them in naira will be less problematic.
For the affected
Nigerians, it was gathered that most of them had disciplinary issues, which
made it easy for the group to do away with their services.
When contacted on
Sunday, the Group Head, Corporate Communications, Dangote Group, Tony Chiejina,
said he could not speak on the development.
However, in a letter
signed by the President/Chief Executive Officer, Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote,
dated Thursday, October 20, 2016,the firm stated that it was constrained to
take the “tough” decision as economic factors had affected the cost of
production.
The letter, which was
titled: ‘Recent Retirement Exercise’, however, appreciated those affected for
their contributions to the growth of the group.
The letter read in part,
“This year has been a very challenging year for us as a business. The
unavailability of foreign exchange coupled with an unprecedented hike in the
exchange rate has resulted in increased costs across the organisation.
“This called for a
proper review and adjustment of our costs across board to ensure efficiency and
effectiveness in the deployment of our factors of production in a bid to
eliminate redundancies that we know exist, which resulted in some tough
decisions, which means losing staff, including some of our colleagues.
“On Friday, October 14,
2016, we began the process of staff cutbacks as it is imperative to review our
human capital deployment for the required cutbacks that would ensure efficiency
and eliminate redundancies in the allocation of human resources.
“This first phase of
this exercise involved the cutback of 36 expatriate staff across the Dangote
Cement Plc and Dangote Industries Limited, and 12 local staff members in
Dangote Industries Limited.”
As an organisation with
international operations, the group promised that it would continue to review
and restructure its human capital deployment to ensure “optimal allocation of
skill sets and size of the workforce each function requires.”
The group urged the
workers to shun lateness, improper dressing and other unsavoury behaviours in
the workplace.
Bloomberg had in its
latest ‘Billionaire Index’ reported that Dangote had lost $5.4bn of his fortune
this year due to the fall in the value of the naira and the decision of the
Central Bank of Nigeria to ration dollars to stem huge capital outflows in the
wake of Nigeria’s worst economic crisis.
Dangote had recently
urged the Federal Government to sell off the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas
Company and other dormant but huge capital-generating enterprises and reinvest
the proceeds in the economy to bring the country out of the current economic
recession before the end of the fourth quarter.
Dansa Foods Nigeria
Limited, which claims to be a member of the Dangote Group, has reportedly been
unable to pay its workers for the past six months.
The company is being run
by Alhaji Sani Dangote, a brother of Aliko, who is the Executive Chairman, with
Aliko’s shares embedded in the firm.
Multiple sources in the
Dangote Group claimed that Dansa Foods was not part of the group but was an
independent company owned and run by Aliko’s brother.
However, in a statement
announcing its participation at the just concluded Lagos International Trade
Fair, the group listed some of its subsidiaries as Dangote Sugar Refinery,
Dangote Agrosacks, NASCON Allied Industries Plc (Dangote Salt), Dangote Rice
Limited, Dangote Cement Plc and Dansa Foods Limited.
It was reported that the
company, which produces Dansa Juice and other goods, had laid off more than
half of the workforce following dwindling sales and high cost of production
caused by high exchange rate of the naira.
It was gathered that the
company had suspended the production of Dansa Juice and other products, and was
only producing Mowa Bottle Water.
As a result, the workers
have reportedly embarked on a strike to press home their demand.
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