Nigerite emerges MAN’s cleanest manufacturing firm in safety awards

Nigerite Limited has been adjudged the cleanest manufacturing company in Lagos State.

It however, bagged the award organised by the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN).

The Quality, Safety, Health and Environment Manager, Nigerite Limited, John Bamigboye, explained that the company won the award for the third time, courtesy of its innovative and world-class approach towards health and safety management in the country.

Bamigboye, during the 49th yearly general meeting of the MAN in Lagos, said it was not easy to emerge winner, maintaining that the company invested in campaigns, efforts and energy to operate a clean, safe and healthy environment.

“So many years ago, MAN put up a competition about the best premises in terms of cleanliness for manufacturing industries in Lagos State. The competition began at a zonal level and later transcended into a branch level.

“This is not the first time we are winning the award. We won it in 2013 and 2014 and came fourth placed in 2015. When we got the report of 2015 that we came fourth, we looked back and analysed the parameters for scoring in the category and did a gap analysis to overcome our competitors,” he said.

He however, commended MAN for establishing such an award, saying this would go a long way to make companies imbibe the culture of cleanliness while also taking cognisance of the health and safety of host communities.

According to him, the company was able to pick up the award courtesy of what he described as its “KISS” model.

Any strategy you make as a company must have a formula which we call Keep It Simple and Stupid (KISS) model.

“This is referred to as Keep It Simple and Stupid because we want everybody to understand this and abide by it, when you keep it too high, you keep it to yourself. We won this award in 2013 and 2014 but dropped after sometime and when I assumed office in 2011, we emerged 9th, so we are coming from afar to occupy the first position,” he said.

In his words, “We want to use this opportunity to encourage our customers to follow our suit. We have many fora that we organise with our consumers to talk about safety, health and environment and support a lot of green initiatives, competitions among students in primary, secondary and higher institutions and we also do a lot in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).”

He also commended efforts by the State government in creating initiatives to promote a green, safe and healthier environment, but stressed that there so much still needs to be done to make the dream a reality.

There are still quite a lot to do, the tree planting is gaining ground while the tree cutting is still at large, noise pollution still constitutes nuisance, poor attitude towards traffic signals by pedestrians. We participate in tree planting initiatives, celebrate world environmental day with federal ministry of environment and the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA), participate in noise pollution control, energy conservation and all that will improve the ecology and energy that will support the green environment,” he added.