REWARD WELL DESERVED: Adamu Nahuta,( middle), receiving a cheque of N500,000.00 from Maijidda Modibbo, left of Corporate Communication, Dangote Group and Nike Sanmi Adebayo, right, Customer Care, Dangote Cement for helping to arrest a Dangote truck driver involved in illegal haulage in the on-going campaign by the Group against the use of its truck for ilłegal haulage.
The philanthropic works being undertaken by the Dangote Foundation to support Kano State Government has hit the mark of N4.2 billion, the Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation, Zouera Youssoufou has disclosed.
Of this amount, a whopping sum of N1.2 billion is spent annually on a feeding project, a special purpose vehicle designed by the Foundation to reduce hunger and extreme poverty among the down trodden in the state.
The Foundation CEO made these disclosures at a meeting with the state governor, Rabiu Musa Kwakwanso, during a working visit to Kano State.
The revelation was greeted with applause by the state governor who commended Dangote Foundation, its founder, Alhaji Aliko Dangote and the management for their interest in seeing that Kano state is transformed in line with the policy direction of the government.
Youssoufou explained that the her team was in Kano to monitor the various on-going projects being undertaken by the Foundation, assess their stages of completion and ensure they are in conformity with design and expectation of the people they are meant for.
She assured the governor that Dangote Foundation is a global institution and would not but ensure that all the projects are of international standard, adding that some of the projects are being redesigned in line with new developments and realities.
According to Youssoufou, the Foundation’s Micro-Grant pogramme for empowerment for women and other vulnerable groups in the state has gulped about N880 million, with 88,000 women so far benefitting from it while the Animal Traction Programme executed through a Revolving Loan to farmers, has cost the Foundation some N160million.
In the areas of provision of clean water, the CEO explained that the Dangote Foundation has contracted out the construction of Borehole facilities for 220 communities across the 44 Local Government Areas of the State at the cost of N110million.
So far, she stated, the first set of 66 boreholes across 6 LGAs have being completed for the use of the people of the areas.
While extolling the developmental strides of the Kano State Government, she expressed happiness that the collaboration between Dangote Foundation and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Routine Immunization and Polio Eradication in the state has turned out fruitful.
On the partnership, Youssoufou disclosed that Dangote Foundation contributed over N600millionto strengthen Routine Immunization and Primary Health Care over the last three years. In addition, about N72million contract has been awarded for the construction of 11 units of Primary HealthCare Centers across 11 Local Government Areas of Kano State.
In an interview with newsmen, the Foundation boss said it has also done a lot in education section in the state, pointing out that the Foundation had expended N55million in the on-going construction of Hostels at the Kano University of Technology Wudil while in the same vein, the on-going construction of the Business School in Bayero University, Kano, is gulping N524 million from the Foundation purse.
“We have commenced the construction of a State-of-the-Art Operating Theatre and Diagnostic Centre at the Murtala Muhammad hospital, Kano and is estimated at N440million. For Students of the University in Wudil, we are currently building hostels that will cost us N55 million”, she noted.
While reiterating the Foundation’s commitment to the development of Kano State, she said the Dangote Foundation has been partnering with Kano State Government on several other development projects not captured in the catalogue of projects being reeled out.
The Kano state governor was full of appreciation to the Foundation for its development agenda for the state and assured the Foundation that all the projects when completed would be adequately maintained.
He said the Dangote Foundation has done so much for Kano in the last four years especially in the area of polio eradication, which the state is grateful for.