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.
It
was 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, it was 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.
Source:The
Punch
Tags
Business