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The proposed guidelines are aligned with some of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the United Nations (UN). Essentially, the guidelines aim to drive sustainability disclosure through the following nine globally accepted principles and standards, as follows: Governance • Principle 1: Businesses should conduct and govern themselves with ethics, transparency and accountability. • Principle 2: Businesses, when engaged in influencing public and regulatory policy, should do so in a responsible manner. Economic • Principle 3: Businesses should provide products and services that are safe and contribute to sustainability throughout their life cycle. • Principle 4: Businesses should engage with and provide value to their customers and consumers in a responsible manner. Social • Principle 5: Businesses should promote the wellbeing of all employees. • Principle 6: Businesses should respect the interests of, and be responsive towards all stakeholders, especially those who are disadvantaged, vulnerable and marginalised. • Principle 7: Businesses should respect and promote human rights. • Principle 8: Businesses should support inclusive growth and equitable development. Environment • Principle 9: Business should respect, protect, and make efforts to restore the environment. Dangote Cement intends to demonstrate its commitment to improving its sustainability performance, compliance and reporting across the triple bottom line by adopting and embedding these principles from the NSE’s Rulebook into its business operations and activities and also into its governance. A separate but related set of reporting standards is being promoted by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), which is a leading organisation in the sustainability field. GRI promotes the use of sustainability reporting as a way for organisations to become more sustainable and 46 Annual Report 2016 contribute to the sustainable development of society. GRI has pioneered sustainability reporting since the late 1990s, transforming it from a niche practice into one now adopted by a growing majority of organisations. The GRI reporting framework is the most trusted and widely used in the world. In November 2015, the GRI Board formally established the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB) to transition GRI’s Sustainability Reporting Guidelines into a set of global Standards. By creating the GSSB to oversee this crucial work, they are able to demonstrate that GRI Standards are developed and maintained in an objective and independent manner. This aim was to restructure content from the G4 Guidelines and Implementation Manual into a set of modular, interrelated GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards. GRI Sustainability reporting standards were launched in October 2016 to further help businesses, governments and other organisations to understand and communicate the impact of business on critical sustainability issues. All elements of the reporting framework are created and improved using a consensus-seeking approach, and considering the widest possible range of stakeholder interests. This includes business, civil society, labour, accounting, investors, academics, governments and sustainability reporting practitioners. GRI Standards are aligned with international instruments including the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the ILO Conventions, the UN Global Compact 10 Principles, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, among many others. Additionally, guidance is provided on how GRI Standards link to many of the common national and international frameworks, helping organisations to streamline their reporting processes for optimum efficiency. In order to enhance our sustainability reporting and comply with internationally agreed disclosures and metrics, Dangote Cement is committed to using the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework to prepare its Sustainable Development Reports.

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