Dangote to Launch 200 Housing Units for IDPs in the North East …builds multi-million naira hostel for ABU

In another rare gesture from a private sector operator to help the Nigerian government in the rehabilitation of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in some parts of the insurgency ravaged areas in the North-east region, the Aliko Dangote Foundation has concluded preparation to inaugurate a multi-billion naira housing estate

The inauguration of the 200 housing units for IDPs in Borno State which has been slated for later this month according to the CEO of Aliko Dangote Foundation, Zouera Youssoufou, is coming even as the Foundation has also completed the construction of a state-of-the-art hostel in Ahmadu Bello University Zaria.

The 10-block hostel has the capacity to accommodate 1,440 students conveniently.

Youssoufou who made the disclosure at an event in Maiduguri at the weekend, stated that the housing units is one of the many critical interventions the Foundation had mapped out for execution in the North-eastern part of Nigeria to restore life to the area and help IDPs live a normal life again.

The state Governor, Kashim Shettima, while reacting to this development, said Dangote is the single largest benefactor of the IDPs after the Federal and state governments.

The governor stated that “Dangote’s contribution does not only stop at feeding and clothing the IDPs which he has been doing over the years, it also cut across resettling and rehabilitating them, a feat no other private organisation has been able to match.”

Just recently, the Foundation kicked off its 2018 Ramadan Food distribution in the state with the distribution of food items worth N150 million to some 200 households from Dalori community in the state. The items included rice, sugar, salt, spaghetti, Semolina, wheat meal, maize and millet.

On the 10-block hostel constructed for the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), the Group Executive Director, Stakeholders Management and Corporate Communication of the Dangote Group, Ahmed Mansur, said the Chairman of the Foundation, Dangote, was not resting on his oars as he plans to up his stakes in philanthropy for the people.

The ABU is the biggest university in Sub-Saharan Africa, and topped the 2018 ranking of Nigerian universities. 

Mansur said no date has been fixed yet for the inauguration of the newly built 10-block hostel and that group has and would continue to contribute enormously to the education sector in Nigeria.

He quoted Dangote as saying that Dangote Group had spent over N4 billion in building classrooms, scholarship programmes and upgrading infrastructure across various universities among others.

“We have just recently inaugurated the Dangote Business School in Kano, the only business school in Nigeria that is well equipped. We will also inaugurate similar projects in University of Ibadan, we have done quite a lot in the educational system and we are looking to do more,” he stated.

National President of the Ahmadu Bello University Alumni Association, Professor Ahmed Tijani Mora, who expressed gratitude for the students’ accommodation, further described Dangote as a “dedicated philanthropist.”