From: Laide Raheem, Abeokuta
As part of efforts to develop its host communities, cements manufacturing gants, Lafarge Africa PLC, has constructed and donated two health centres for Batoro and Aruba communities in Sagamu, Sagamu Local Government Area of Ogun State.
Also, the cement manufacturer has conducted free eye surgeries for 100 indigenes of Remo, just as it provided sanitation tools and materials such as hand gloves, dust bins, wheel barrows, rakes, brooms, nose guards, sanitizers, among others, to Sagamu Youth Council in order to ensure hygienic environment.
Speaking at the inauguration of the two health centres donated to the two Sagamu communities, Chief Executive Officer of Lafarge Africa, Michel Puchercos, declared that the company would continue to show commitment to education, health and safety, economic empowerment and infrastructural development in Nigeria, especially to its host communities across the country.
Puchercos, who announced N5 million bursaries to 100 tertiary school students drawn from all the communities in Remo axis of Ogun State, noted that Lafarge Africa reached out to its host communities as part of measures to support government in its quest to offer quality and affordable healthcare for the entire residents of the State.
His words, “On our part in the last four decades of our strategic partnership and collaboration, we have continued to show our commitment to education, economic empowerment, health and safety and infrastructural development.
“Apart from being pillars, founded on the Sustainable Development Goals, it forms part of Lafargeholcim’s plan of guaranteeing a sustainable future for all.
“As always, our investments in CSR demonstrate our commitment to positively impacting lives. Earlier in the year and in line with Health & Safety as Lafarge’s overarching value, two health centres have been provided for the communities. To ease access to potable water, we commissioned additional ten (10) boreholes in various communities.
“In the area of education, several blocks of classrooms were renovated and furniture provided for twenty one (21) public primary schools within this community. A hundred undergraduates also benefitted from our bursary awards while two buildings were renovated for the National Association for the Blind.
“In addition to these are skills acquisition programmes, programmes for the development of creative skills, computer/InfoTech training as well as coaching programmes for students of public senior secondary schools. We could not have achieved these modest successes without the support of RIDSCo and the good people of Sagamu.”
Speaking, the Commissioner of Education, Science and Technology in the state, Modupe Mujota, lauded Lafarge’s gesture towards quality health and academic excellence in the state, saying the intervention undertaken in the areas of health, education and economic empowerment had represented the company as one of Ogun state partners in progress.
Mujota, represented by the Director of Primary and Tertiary Education, Oluola Aikulola, however, urged all the firms operating in the state to reach out to the people in their host communities, submitting “this is a gesture that will remain historic not only in the history of the schools and communities, but the state as a whole.”