NASCO founder, Nasreddin, passes on at 96, Lalong mourns

NASCO Group of Companies founder, Ahmed Nasreddin, has died, aged 96.

The company, which is headquartered in Jos, was established by the late Nasreddin in 1963 and has produced household items feeding the Nigerian market and beyond for decades.

Governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong, yesterday said that the passing of Nasreddin, the Ethiopian who later became an Eritrean, is a great loss not only to the NASCO family but people of Plateau and Nigeria at large.

In a statement released by his Director of Press and Public Affairs, Makut Macham, Governor Lalong said the late Nasreddin was a visionary leader who groomed his company from a little beginning to become a major conglomerate.

The statement partly read, “Governor Simon Lalong has expressed the deep condolences of the people and Government of Plateau State to the NASCO family over the passing of the founder of the Nasco Group of Companies, Dr Ahmed Nasreddin who died at the age of 96.

“The late Nasreddin was a visionary leader who established NASCO in Jos in 1963 as the first jute bag factory in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa, in response to the desire of the Nation’s founding fathers to meet the challenges for the effective bagging, storage and export of the large agricultural products from the country. This vision saw the company growing from its little beginnings to become a major conglomerate with successful companies in manufacturing, real estate, hospitality and logistics, trading among others.

“NASCO has over the years remained a major employer of labour in Plateau State and continues to contribute to the economic prosperity of the State and Nigeria at large through tax revenue and corporate social responsibility. Because of the faith that the late Nasreddin had in Plateau State, NASCO remained rooted in the State throughout the difficult moments when the State witnessed crises that affected its development.”

The governor, while consoling the family, management and staff of the NASCO Conglomerate, said the legacies of the late business mogul will continue to prevail particularly when the company he founded many years ago is waxing stronger and being successfully run by his son, Attia Nasreddin, and other members of the family. He assured the NASCO family of the support and collaboration of the Plateau State Government as he prayed God to grant the soul of the deceased eternal rest and comfort the family.

It can be recalled that the late Nasreddin was, in 2002, branded a terrorist financier by the United States and the United Nations, according to a report by NBC News.

“We felt very strongly that he had been providing material support, financial support, to al-Qaida,” a top U.S. Treasury official, Juan Zarate, had said.

Then US President, George W. Bush, froze the assets of Nasreddin’s Al Taqwa bank.

“Taqwa is an association of offshore banks and financial management firms that have helped al-Qaida shift money around the world.” Ex-president Bush had said.

The assets and companies of the late Nasco founder are frozen in some parts of the world including Nascotex SA in Tangiers, Morocco; Nasco Nasreddin Holding, Turkey; Nasreddin Group International Holding Ltd. in the Bahamas; and Nascoservice in Milan, Italy.

His assets in Nigeria – producers of cereals and other products – however remained unfrozen.

The NBC News report had noted that a UN official, Richard Barrett had said about Nasreddin’s assets, “What’s supposed to happen to his assets is that they should be frozen, that he should have no access to them, no benefit from them — wherever they are in the world.”

Barrett also added that enforcing international sanctions are usually tricky because company ownership is usually hard to determine.

Nasreddin had, however, denied any involvement in the financing of terrorism. His son had also told NBC that his father had no ties to terrorists, had never been charged with a crime and hoped the his name would be removed. from the terrorist list.