Dangote joins board of ‘One Campaign’

The ONE Campaign has announced the appointment of the President/Chief Executive, the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote to its board.

A statement from the anti-poverty group said Dangote, one of Africa’s most prominent business leaders, will bring his wealth of expertise and experience to bear on development and poverty fighting efforts.

The announcement follows shortly after Dangote and ONE’s co-founder Bono during a visit to a camp for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs),  fleeing from instability caused by Boko Haram in the North East, observed that without immediate aid about 50,000 children would risk death this year.

In view of this, a partnership between ONE and the Dangote Foundation was struck to strengthen civil society and boost efforts to fight poverty and preventable disease in Nigeria.

“On behalf of the board and ONE’s seven million members worldwide, I am delighted to welcome Aliko Dangote. It is a 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 Aliko Dangote’s calibre that we can succeed in our aim,” Tom Freston, chairman of ONE’s board, said.

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.”

It will be recalled that through Dangote Foundation, the Nigerian business mogul has for sometime been at the forefront of poverty and disease eradication in Nigeria.

Earlier in the year, Dangote in conjunction with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced plans for a $100 million scheme to cut malnutrition in Nigeria.

The partnership between Dangote 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 till 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 will be recalled that Dangote Foundation put smiles on the faces of the IDPs in the North Eastern part of the country, during the Ramadan session with the distribution of food items and other relief materials.

Also, Aliko Dangote 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.