As part of its social responsibilities, the cement company, Lafarge Cement Wapco, has renovated three primary schools in Sagamu, Ogun State.
Classrooms in the benefiting schools were renovated to a more conducive state and handed over to the state government after they were commissioned on Tuesday. The schools are AUD Primary School, Isale-Oko; St Paul’s School II, Ijoku, and Local Government School, Kanuyi.
The cement producing company also donated 160 thousand exercise books to 56 schools in the town. The pupils of the schools and their teachers were full of joy at the occasion.
The Managing Director of the company, Joseph Hudson, said the renovations and book presentation “marks seven consecutive years that we have been running with this initiative.”
He disclosed that the renovation project provided a block of six classrooms at the AUD Primary School; a block of three classrooms and one office at St Paul’s School; and two blocks of three classrooms (six classrooms in all) at the local government primary school in Kanuyi community.
“What we are witnessing today is an expression of our commitment to supporting education because we believe that education is the bedrock of a nation and [an] educated nation is a developed nation,” Mr. Hudson emphasised.
He also highlighted some of the company’s educational contributions. These include an annual Bursary Award Scheme, which has benefited a total of 793 communities; extramural coaching classes; donation of science laboratory equipment; upgrading of Sagamu Public Library with new set of computers; as well as provision of Internet facilities and the installation of a 10KVA generator for the effective functioning of the library.
Earlier in his welcome speech, Chairman of Sagamu Community Development Council, Omoba Oyedele, noted that, “we are celebrating the rich corporate social responsibility of Lafarge,” adding that “this is an annual event which we do not intend to bye-pass this year.”
He appreciated and commended Lafarge for positively influencing the lives of the people of Sagamu local government through its laudable corporate social responsibility.
Mr. Oyedele further pointed out that there is no tangible area of the lives of the people that the impact of Lafarge is not being felt. He called on other corporate bodies to emulate Lafarge’s gestures.
“The least that all our corporate bodies can do is to show that they appreciate the good gesture of the community that gave them [an] enabling environment to perform [in] by putting back a little to better their lives.” he said.
