Two months after News Express broke the story, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Chairman and Chief Executive Director of Dangote Group, has confirmed that doctorate and Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree holders were among over 13,000 university graduates who applied to work as truck drivers in his company.

News Express had on September 18 reported in a story entitled “Exclusive: PHD HOLDERS apply to work as truck drivers for Dangote” that “Holders of doctorate degrees (Ph.D) and Masters of Business Administration (MBA) are among those who have applied to work as truck drivers at Dangote Group.”

In an earlier exclusive report on August 31, News Express had disclosed: “While Dangote is looking for 2,000 graduate truck drivers, it has become deluged with13,000 applications.”

Dangote himself confirmed all that during a World Bank Youth Forum (WBYF) mentorship programme in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, on Thursday evening.

Africa’s richest man said he was surprised by the unusually huge number of applications, disclosing that among the applicants were six PhD, 65 MBA, 649 Masters and over 8,460 Bachelor degree holders.

“All these things are verifiable, and they all graduated from reputable institutions which is satisfactory; and our plan is to eventually make them self dependent,” Dangote said.

On how the system will work, Dangote (shown in photo) said: “Despite the fact that the drivers get trip allowances on each trip along with their salaries, the arrangement is that they will own the trucks at no interests or repayments after they must have reached 300,000 kilometres, which is about 140 trips from Lagos to Kano and a hard working driver can complete in two years, while lazy ones can take maximum of four years.”

Published by Africa’s award-winning business journalist, Mr. Isaac Umunna, News Express is Nigeria’s leading online daily newspaper and the most professional. Known for authoritative stories and for breaking the news, News Express covers the widest range of issues and its stories attract responses from all over the world.