The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria has lauded the pioneering roles being played by the pan-African conglomerate, Dangote Group, in shaping the economy of Nigeria for the betterment of Nigerians and the benefit of other African countries.
The Institute praised the management of the Company for the giant strides it has been undertaking in the manufacturing business to make the country self-sufficient in a number of commodities that would have otherwise made the nation spend huge foreign exchange in importing.
The President of the Institute, Razak Jayeola, made these remarks when he led the executive members of the body to the Lagos global head office of the Company on a courtesy visit.
Jayeola said the Company has become a pride of Africa in its trail blazing efforts in manufacturing businesses like Cement and Sugar, which had hitherto caused the country huge foreign exchange to import but with the nation now self-sufficient and exporting.
Jayeola also alluded to the 650,000 bpd refinery currently under construction, which will also save Nigeria foreign exchange that is presently being spent on importation of petroleum products.
The Institute particularly praised the ingenuity of the management, led by Olakunle Alake, saying: “It shows from all indication that he has skills laced with strategy with which he has been steering the company to profitability.
“Dangote Group is a pride of Africa.
“Its contribution to job creation is unquantifiable.
“Nigeria has achieved self-sufficiency in cement and sugar through the efforts of the company.
“Nigerians can’t thank you enough.”
Jayeola also explained some of the challenges being faced by the Institute and efforts being made by his leadership to turn things around.
He disclosed that the institute has commenced stakeholders fora to address its challenges.
Jayeola explained that his leadership is looking towards application of information technology for accounting purposes and that an Accounting Technology Conference has been scheduled as a start up towards the use of technology in Accounting.
In his response, Alake, the Group Managing Director of Dangote Industries Limited, who was also with some management members as well as some staff who are ICAN members, showered accolades on the ICAN leadership for its foresight and orderly manner it organizes Institute.
He explained that DIL is a quality organization that is always in search of quality, which was why the company has a large number of ICAN members as staff.
He said: “In Dangote, we are always trying to grow the economy and we believe that for the economy to grow, you must create jobs.
“A key element to be a producing nation, we must create a cycle of wealth.
“That is why we invest and re-invest.
“In Dangote, we don’t keep our dividends.
“We use it for more investments.
“Any nation that must grow must create jobs.
“That is why we touch people’s lives positively.
“We create wealth through job creation.”
Alake challenged the government to look into wealth creation for Nigerians through massive job creation.
