Dangote joins board of ONE Campaign

The ONE Campaign has announced the appointment of the President/Chief Executive, the Dangote Group, AlikoDangote, to its Board. A statement from the anti-poverty group said Dangote, one of Africa’s most prominent business leaders, brings a wealth of expertise and experience on how to encourage development and poverty-fighting efforts.

The announcement came shortly after Dangote and ONE’s co-founder Bono travelled to North East Nigeria, where they visited a camp for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), fleeing from instability caused by Boko Haram, and highlighted how, without immediate aid, nearly 50,000 children are at risk of death this year.

On the trip they also announced a partnership between ONE and the Dangote Foundation which will work to strengthen civil society and boost efforts to fight poverty and preventable disease in Nigeria.

Tom Freston, Chair of ONE’s Board, said: “On behalf of the Board, and ONE’s seven million members worldwide, I am delighted to welcome AlikoDangote. It is a true privilege to have someone with so much knowledge and experience to help guide the efforts of ONE. We are at a crucial point in the fight against extreme poverty with many opportunities, but also many challenges. It is only by working with someone of AlikoDangote’s calibre that we can succeed in our aim.”

Speaking about his new role, Dangote said: “I am extremely happy to be part of this incredible organisation. The goal of ending extreme poverty is so important that everyone has a duty to help, and I am honoured that I too will be able to play my part by advising and supporting the leadership of ONE.”

Through his foundation, Dangote Foundation, the Nigerian business mogul   has been at the forefront of poverty and disease eradication in Nigeria.

Earlier in the year, he in conjunction with   the tech billionaire Bill Gates announced plans for a $100 million   scheme to cut malnutrition in Nigeria.

The partnership between his Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is meant to address the problem of malnutrition, which affects roughly 11 million children in northern Nigeria.

The new scheme will fund programmes to 2020 and beyond, using local groups in the north-west and north-east. The north-east has for the past seven years been ravaged by Boko Haram’s Islamic militant insurgency.

It would be recalled that Dangote Foundation put smiles on the faces of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the North Eastern part of the country during Ramadan session with the distribution of food items and other relief materials.

Also, AlikoDangote in his recent fact-finding tour of IDPs’ camps in the North-East donated a sum of N2 billion for the sustenance of the IDPs.

Reacting to these wonderful gestures, Governor Shettima of Borneo State lauded Dangote Foundation for the kind gesture and said that words are not enough to adequately convey the gratitude of the people of Borno for the love shown to them by the Foundation.

He said, “In this time of very serious challenges, AlikoDangote choose to stand with people that are less privileged, the internally displaced persons thereby depicting his love for the common man.

“We remain eternally indebted to his foundation for the show of support in this trying period of our states and we will ensure that the N2 billion donation he made to the state is judiciously used in the area of health care, education and resettlement of IDPs.”