DANGOTE WINS ECOWAS’ MANUFACTURING BRAND OF THE YEAR AWARD

BY ALIMOTU SHADIA

Africa’slargest business conglomerate, Dangote Industries Limited has been adjudged the Outstanding Indigenous Conglomerate of the Decade, carting home eight different Economic Community of West African States Manufacturing Excellence Awards (EMEA) in the process.

In the same vein, two subsidiaries of the Conglomerate, Dangote Cement Plc and Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc also received awards of the renowned Marketing Edge magazine’s Brands of the Decade.

While the EMEA awards were given by the Nigeria’s Daily Independent Newspaper and its BusinessDay Ghana counterpart, the Brand of the Decade for Dangote Group subsidiaries were received at the 10th edition of the leading brand magazine, Marketing Edge’s 2022 Summit and Award Night themed “Technological explosion in the digital Age – Imperatives for the marketing communications industry”, which held in Lagos.

It was a gale of accolades as the Dangote brand was named number one brand by all standards with its Sugar and Cement brands as the two brands, which company has contributed tremendously to the infrastructure development not only in Nigeria but Africa in the last 10 years.

Speaking at the event, Mr. John Ajayi, Publisher/CEO of Marketing Edge Publications described this year’s awards as one with a special attraction and uniqueness, designed to reboot, restart and re-energise the social, intellectual and entrepreneurial landscape of the Nigerian Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC).

While eulogising the management of Dangote Group for the business strategy that has helped in positioning the brand well ahead of others in the industry, he explained that the award event was organised to “celebrate the best and brightest brands”

According to him, the award to Dangote brands are in recognition of its leadership and domination in the various market segments and categories, adding that the recognised brands are brands that “continue to make the Nigerian consumers happy and satisfied”.

The Marketing Edge publisher, while giving the business trajectory of the past 19 years, saluted the various winners and their managements for their roles in making Nigeria proud, citing an instance of how Dangote Cement and Dangote Sugar have made Nigeria self-sufficient in cement and sugar production.

In his response to the new awards, Mr. Anthony Chiejina, Group Chief, Branding & Communications Officer, Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), said the Group’s brand remains at the forefront of African enterprise and that the brand, since inception, has touched the lives of many by providing their basic needs.

Expressing gratitude to the management of Marketing Edge publications for the recognition, Mr. Chiejina explained that consumers are loyal to brands that are purposeful and that is “why we have designed a strategy that creates that purpose.” “Because we understand the power of brands, we have positioned all our businesses to be consumer-centric so that it can inspire millions of people behind it”, Mr. Chiejina stated.

The ECOWAS awards won by the company included ECOWAS Manufacturing Company of the Year; ECOWAS Manufacturing Company CEO of the Year; ECOWAS Manufacturing CSR Company of the Year; ECOWAS Cement Manufacturing Company of the Year; ECOWAS Sugar Manufacturing Company of the Year; ECOWAS Salt Manufacturing Company of the Year and ECOWAS Fertiliser Manufacturing Company of the Year.