By Dipo Olowookere
Towards the end of last week, news of an alleged mass sacking of employees of Dangote Cement Plc hit the space.
It was reported that about 3,000 persons on the payroll of the cement firm owned by Africa’s richest man, Mr Aliko Dangote, were laid off without due process.
According to reports, the workers were asked to go after working overtime during the period the federal government locked down the economy in Lagos, Abuja and Ogun State as part of efforts to curb the spread of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the country.
A letter of termination of one of the affected staff released on social media, which was signed by the Head of Human Resources and Administration at Dangote Cement, Mr Adeniyi Azeez, informed the sacked workers that the process of their payment would be communicated without indicating a specific date.
“Our payroll is currently working out your final financial entitlements and this would be communicated to you during the off-boarding process,” a part of the letter read.
Business Post observed that the news of the sacking of the workers, which some linked to an alleged financial crisis in the firm, caused shares of Dangote Cement at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) to plunge into the red zone last Friday.
At the trading session, Dangote Cement stocks depreciated by N9 or 6.47 percent to sell for N130 per unit in contrast to the previous day’s N139 per share.
Shareholders of the company were not happy with the development and according to analysts at Business Post, cautious trading is expected around Dangote Cement equities this week.
But President of Dangote Group, Mr Aliko Dangote, has said that despite the challenging economic situation in the 2019 fiscal year, Dangote Cement was able to sustain 54,000 jobs in four African countries; Nigeria, Ethiopia, Senegal and South Africa, where the company has its operations.
While addressing shareholders at the company’s 11th Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Lagos, the business mogul said more jobs would be created as the firm intensifies the export of clinker to other neighbouring countries from Nigeria.
“According to our 2019 socio-economic impact assessment study specifically on our operations in Nigeria, Ethiopia, Senegal, and South Africa, we sustained 54,005 jobs (direct, indirect, induced) in these four markets in the year under review,” he said.
