Lafarge Africa Donates Classrooms, Medical Facilities, Bursaries, Agricultural and Economic Empowerment Support to Host Communities

In its continued determination to support the sustained growth and development of its host communities, building solutions provider and cement manufacturing company, Lafarge Africa, has donated and unveiled several corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects in host communities at specially created Lafarge Community Days.

These Community Days and CSR project unveils will hold from November to December at Lafarge Africa plant locations across the country including Ewekoro and Sagamu in Ogun state, Mfamosing in Cross River state and Ashaka in Gombe state.

For the Ewekoro Community in Ogun State, projects launched at the Community Day which held recently include a block of five classrooms to the Local Government Nursery and Primary School, Jagunna, Itori and a renovated block of four classrooms, head teacher and assistant head teacher’s offices with toilets for both teachers and pupils at First Africa Mission School, Lapeleke.

Projects launched include Laboratory equipment at the Health Centre built by Lafarge Africa for Egbado Ajegunle and installation of a substation and electrification of Oke Oko Egbado community. Also in a bid to improve the quality of produce from our farmlands and create more opportunities for our people to live better, agricultural support was provided to farmers while several members of the Ewekoro community also benefitted from economic empowerment programmes.

To reiterate Lafarge Africa’s commitment to education, over 200 students of higher institutions from the Ewekoro community are beneficiaries of bursary awards.

During the formal presentation of the projects, Chief Executive Officer, Lafarge Africa, Michel Puchercos, described the Corporate Social Responsibility projects as part of the company’s long-term commitment to investing in its host community and its people. He expressed appreciation to the State government and traditional rulers in the community for the exemplary leadership they continue to display. He said:

“Lafarge Africa’s commitment to the development of our local communities is unwavering. As an organization, we recognize our host communities as our partners, building progressively together for the future, while ensuring that we leave positive footprints that will impact the society.

We thank all our stakeholders for supporting our goal of creating sustainable, peaceful communities. We especially thank the leaders and people in our host communities for creating an enabling environment for us to operate”.

In his speech, the Baale of one of the host communities, Chief Joshua Oniyitan (Ilufemiloye 1) expressed appreciation to Lafarge Africa, describing the projects as a timely intervention.

“We sincerely appreciate the commitment of the management of Lafarge Africa for making sure these projects were completed as they have raised the standard of our children, mothers, our pregnant women, the elderly and the community at large to the next level.” he said.

In 2017, Lafarge Africa created the Cement Professionals Training Program (CPTP), a program aimed at helping youths with entrepreneurial spirit to achieve their goals in the fields of technology, engineering, cement manufacturing, instrumentation and automation. With just a year into the program, more than 30 youths have been impacted. 

In the same year, the company invested heavily in several social investment programs and initiatives across the country, directly impacting more than 450,000 beneficiaries across its host communities.

Since 2014, Lafarge Africa has been complementing the Nigerian government’s efforts to improve education at the primary level through the Lafarge Africa National Literacy Competition. So far, over 500,000 public primary school pupils have been impacted across 544 Local Government Areas of Nigeria.

With its numerous Corporate Responsibility Projects being delivered across the country, Lafarge Africa which is built on the principles of sustainability is contributing its quota to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to be realized by the year 2030 and the LafargeHolcim 2030 Plan which focuses on Climate, Circular Economy, Water & Nature, People & Communities.