Dangote Group, one of the biggest employers of labour, owned by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has relieved 48 persons of their job with the company.
Those sacked include; 36 expatriates and 12 Nigeria workers, who were mainly based at their headquarters and one of the subsidiaries of Dangote Cement plc.
The decision to reduce the staff is because the company said they were spending so much on footing the bills of some of the relived staff who are expatriates, while the Nigerians were sacked in line with disciplinary action taken against them for their misconduct.
It was also gathered that the decision to sack some of the workers was also because of the low productivity and income generated by Dangote group as a result of the current economic recession which is biting deep in the economy especially on big companies who rely on foreign exchange to run their businesses.
It was also gathered that the huge increase in foreign exchange being paid to the expatriate workers had become too expensive to foot as against paying a Nigerian worker because of the continuous depreciation of the naira and the unavailability of dollars.
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 decision due to economic factors which are affecting the productivity of the company.
The letter, which was titled: ‘Recent Retirement Exercise,” appreciated the efforts of those who were affected for their immense contributions and value added to the company.
According to the content of the letter, it read:
“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 the exercise involved the cutback of 36 expatriate staff across the Dangote Cement plc, and 12 local staff members in Dangote industries limited.
“As an organisation with international standards, the group promised that it would continue to review and restructure it’s human capital deployment to ensure the optimal allocation of skills sets and size of the workforce each function requires.”
Dangote Group further encouraged the remainimg workers to continue being commited to the growth of the company, and to shun negative vices that may affect their productivity.
Dangote had earlier encouraged the government to sell off Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas and other dormant but huge capital generating enterprises so as to reinvest it’s proceeds back into the economy in order to steer us out of the economic recession affecting the country.