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.
Our correspondents 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.
