Nearly 200 fresh engineers and other professionals have been put in the payroll of Dangote Cement Plc after the completion of an 18-month Graduate Trainee Programme of the organisation.
They were chosen from various engineering, finance, Information Technology (IT) and other disciplines and formally inducted in the company’s workforce over the weekend.
The training programme comprises both classroom and on-the-job learning conducted at Dangote Academy and across the four plants locations in Nigeria and the head office.
During the programme, the trainees were deployed across Dangote Cement’s plants and operational locations, where they acquired practical industry experience and benefited from the mentorship of seasoned professionals within the organisation.
The cement firm noted that several of the trainees have since been integrated across its cement operations in Nigeria and other African countries.
It was gathered that four engineers were outstanding during the programme and were celebrated at the induction. They are Ms Mary Nnana, Mr Ahmad Sunusi Abdullahi, Mr Ahmed Rufai Ahmed, and Mr Ebenezer Afonja.
These four engineers 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.
The Programme Coordinator, Mr Iyal H. Abdulkareem, said the awardees demonstrated outstanding hands on industrial competence throughout the programme, noting that their contributions included improving reporting and customer administration systems; undertaking raw and cement mill main drive alignments; carrying out preheater fan dynamic balancing; and developing templates for documenting and tracking key plant performance indicators (KPIs).
The Acting Group Human Resources Officer, Mr Ahmed Ladan 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,” Mr Gobir said.
The chief executive of Dangote Cement, Mr Arvind Pathak, on his part, said, “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.”
The Dangote Cement 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.