Monday, January 26, 2026 - Dangote Cement Plc has inducted 100 newly trained engineers and other professionals into its workforce following the successful completion of its Graduate Trainee Programme, reaffirming the company’s commitment to job creation, skills development, and local capacity building in Nigeria.
The trainees, drawn from various engineering, finance, IT
and other disciplines, were formally inducted over the weekend after completing
an intensive 18-month training programme which entails both classroom and
on-the-job learning was conducted at Dangote Academy and across the four plants
locations in Nigeria and the Head Office.
The Graduate Trainee Programme is a structured development
journey designed to groom high potential professionals for future leadership
roles through cross functional exposure, classroom instruction, executive
mentorship, and hands on project execution.
During the programme, the trainees were deployed across
Dangote Cement’s plants and operational sites, where they gained practical
industry experience and benefited from mentorship from seasoned professionals
within the organisation.
The company noted that several of the trainees have since
been integrated across its cement operations in Nigeria and other African
countries.
Dangote Cement stated that the induction of the engineers
reflects its sustained commitment to providing meaningful employment
opportunities and strengthening indigenous technical expertise across its
operations.
In addition to the induction ceremony, the company honoured
outstanding staff with Long Service Awards and Hall of Fame Employee Awards in
recognition of their dedication and consistent demonstration of Dangote
Cement’s core values of customer focus, entrepreneurship, excellence, and
leadership. The award recipients, who received substantial monetary rewards,
have each served the company for at least 5 years.
Speaking at the ceremony held in Lagos, the managing
director and chief executive officer of Dangote Cement, Mr. Arvind Pathak, said
the event was organised to celebrate employees who have made significant
contributions to the company’s growth and success.
“We are honouring some of our staff for their long service
to the company, and we are also celebrating our graduate trainees who are
officially rounding off their induction programme,” Pathak said.
He commended employees for their resilience despite
prevailing economic challenges, noting that Dangote Cement recorded strong
performance in 2025 despite a challenging operating environment.
“Despite the economic turbulence, your resilience and
tenacity enabled us to overcome numerous challenges and achieve our objectives.
More importantly, I thank you for your commitment and high performance, which
have helped us retain our position as the dominant player in the cement sector,
not only in Nigeria but across Africa,” he stated.
Pathak added that Dangote Cement remains Africa’s leading
cement producer and is targeting a production capacity of 90 million metric
tonnes per annum across the continent by 2030.
“Through our collective determination, we have eliminated
Nigeria’s dependence on imported cement and transformed the country into a net
exporter of cement to several neighbouring nations,” he said.
Also speaking at the event, the acting Group Human Resources
Officer, Mr Ahmed Gobir, described the Graduate Trainee Programme as a
strategic initiative aimed at equipping newly graduated engineers with
world-class skills and deep industry exposure.
“Nigeria’s greatest asset is its young people, and at
Dangote Cement we are deliberate about empowering them with the skills,
exposure, and opportunities required to succeed.
“Through initiatives such as our Graduate Trainee Programme,
we are providing young engineers with the platform to build meaningful careers,
contribute to national development, and emerge as the next generation of
African industrial leaders,” Gobir said.
Recognising four exceptional graduate trainees, the
programme coordinator, Mr. Iyal Abdulkareem, said the awardees demonstrated
outstanding hands on industrial competence throughout the programme.
According to him, their contributions included improving
reporting and customer administration systems; undertaking primary drive
alignments for the raw and cement mills; carrying out dynamic balancing of
preheater fans; and developing templates for documenting and tracking key plant
performance indicators (KPIs).
The four engineers, Engr. Mary Nnana, Engr. Ahmad Abdullahi,
Engr. Rufai Ahmed, and Engr. Ebenezer Afonja, also played key roles in the
installation and commissioning of MIS servers at the Obajana Plant, as well as
supporting the deployment of cement mill optimisation systems at the Obajana
and Okpella plants.
0 Comments