It was a week of double honours for Nigeria’s foremost engineering construction company, Julius Berger last week, as leading specialist newspaper in Transport Management, Transport Day and foremost national newspaper, Champion Newspapers honoured the company big. While Transport Day newspaper gave Julius Berger the Construction Company of the Year Award, Champion Newspaper pronounced and gave the company an Award of Excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR; 2023.
At the 10th Transport Day Award ceremony which held at the Radisson Blu, Ikeja, Lagos mid last week, Publisher/Editor-in-Chief, Mr. Frank Kintum said the Board of Editors of the publication reviewed all the roads and bridges as well as related construction activities of construction companies across the country by employing the services of the newspaper’s numerous coreespondents in the states and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, before arriving at the unanimous decision to crown Julius Berger as Constrcution Company of the Year.
Said he amidst applause: Transport Day has grown to be acknowleged as the acclaimed authority in reporting activities in the Transport sector. We have also received accolades for our objectivity and professionalism. The emergence of Julius Berger as the Construction Company of the Year of the lot was a product of painstaking work by our correspeondents across the states as well as diligent stakeholders, who overwhelmingly voted for the giant engineering construction company. Welldone julius Berger and congratulations.
The Project Manager, Technical, Region West, Mr. Christl Thomas who received the Award on behalf of the company expressed how humbling it was to be so rewarded for doing one’s professional job, adding, we thank the organisers and we appreciate this honour.
Stakeholders in the transport sector as well as media gurus joined others to grace the event.
The Transport Day Awards ceremony also featured the 10th Nigeria Transport Lecture with the theme: Transportation Safety in Nigeria: The Way Forward.
Excellence in CSR Award
Before she announced Julius Berger Nigeria Plc as winner of it 2023 edition of Excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, the Group Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of Champion Newspaper Limited, Dr. Mrs. Nwaduito Iheakanwa told the teeming audience that, the annual Champion Awards is all about responsiviness to the things that hold us together as a people with common destiny; adding that,all that we strive to do is to recognise excellence and hardwork with the view to agitating our minds into doing more.
The prestigious annual Award to Julius Berger she continued, is a product of the painstaking selection of its Board of Editors, adding that the Award underscores the zeal of the newspaper to appreciate outstanding leaders in both public and private sectors of the economy as well as institutions and companies that have made greater sacrifices in ensuring that the objectives and fundamental ideals of the corporate community and the the Nigerian state are sustained.
She continued: on all rankings, our findings, largely corroborated by that of credible independent assessors, confirm that under your management, Julius Berger Nigeria PLC has remained very committed to discharging its Corporate Social Responsibility creditably well especially in the educational sector and bringing succour to less privileged members of the society in the country.
The media House said that it is particularly impressed by the Nigeria’s leading engineering construction company’s improved Corporate Social Responsibility portfolio of initiatives to benefit its host communities across the country through donations of principal’s offices, classrooms, desks and chairs to provide a conducive learning environment for students, enhance their wellbeing in order to encourage them to put more efforts into their education.
Describing Julius Berger’s efforts as heartwarming and particularly significant since education remains the bedrock of the social, economic and technological development of every nation, the Group Managing Director further said that such massive donations complement government’s efforts in laying the necessary foundation for Nigerian youths, the leaders of tomorrow to acquire the needed knowledge at the primary and secondary school levels.
Not done, the Editor-in-Chief said, we note with satisfaction that beneficiaries of Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, CSR’s efforts, worth hundreds of millions of naira during the period under review include, Government Secondary School Gwarinpa, Life camp, FCT, Abuja and Government Day Junior Secondary School, Boyi, Gurara LG.A, in Niger State while the company had also donated books to many students through its literacy campaign initiative to boost their zeal for writing and reading as well as constructed standard basketball courts for sports development.
Also, on Julius Berger’s CSR efforts to orphanages, the media personality said, indeed, your company’s unrivalled commitment to the welfare of inmates of orphanages across the six gee-political zones through regular donation of various food items and other consumables to such institutions has gone a long way in making life meaningful for the less privileged members of society and is worthy of emulation.
Concluding, Nwaduito said that as a watch dog of the society, a newspaper worth its salt is duty-bound not only to track and document Julius Berger’s commendable track record of service to humanity but also to acknowledge the company’s commitment to profitability even as it contributes its quota to Nigeria’s socio-economic and technological development.
Speaking after receiving the Award on behalf of Engr Dr Lars Richter, Julius Berger’s Managing Director, the company’s Chief Risk Officer, Mrs Shakira Mustapha said, we are honoured to be so honoured with this Award. We assure you we will continue to raise the bar in our Corporate Social Responsibility efforts to man, society and the nation.
Among the creme de la creme that graced the event were the Chairman, Nigeria Drug Law Enforment Agency, Gen. Buba Marwa, the Chief Excutives of Zenith and UBA banks, the deputy governors of Anambra and Borno states as well as the former governor of Cross River state, Donald Duke among several others
