SPDC Spends N6.75bn On 250 Projects

The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) says it has committed about $45 million (approximately N6.750 billion) to the funding of a total 250 projects in the Niger Delta.

Disclosing this at the second leg of the 2010 Bureau Chiefs/News Editors Forum in Port Harcourt last Wednesday, the company said that the projects were implemented between 2006 and 2009 within the framework of agreements with 17 pilot Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU) clusters, covering a total of 187 communities, and representing around 20 per cent of the number of local communities impacted by its business operations in the region.

The Tide learnt that Shell operates in around 1,500 communities, and therefore, requires well over 70 GMoUs to make meaningful impact while entrenching participatory and sustainable development in the host communities.

Head, Strategy and Planning, Sustainable Development and Community Relations, Gloria Udoh, said while making Shell’s presentation on the GMoU as a vehicle for social change, that already, the various governments have helped  identify 67 clusters but noted that most were yet to be active.

Udoh stated that the GMoU structure and process bring impacted communities together with representatives of local and state governments, SPDC, NNPC and non-profit organisations in the clusters decision-making committees on projects, and gives communities greater control and ownership over their development.

She stressed that the strategy encourages greater participation in development process, and also creates a more open and transparent way for SPDC to interface with communities and help support social investment projects.

Explaining the GMoU concept, the strategy and planning anchor said SPDC provides the communities with secure funding for agreed development projects, and access to development experts to help build local capacity and deliver projects within five years, while the communities identify their own needs, decide how to spend available money, and directly implement and monitor projects within their areas.

Udoh stated that the 17 active CDBs were already delivering unique development projects to their people, and drew participants’ attention to the startling success stories of IA, Degema 1, Ikwerre, Nembe, Kou, AKULGA and Etche Clusters.

In their separate testimonials, chairmen of IA, Nembe Ogbolomabiri, Ikwerre, Kou and Degema 1 clusters, Dr. Joseph Amadi, Chief Young Dede, Hon. Boniface Emerengwa, Barr. Osten Igbapiki and Barr. Iyalla Igoni, respectively, painted glowing pictures of their accomplishments in transforming the livelihoods of their communities in Rivers and Bayelsa States.

They claimed that they have never had it so good in their relationships with oil companies in the region, and challenged journalists to undertake independent visits to the GMoU projects in their clusters to see things for themselves.

In his remarks, Shell General Manager, Sustainable Development and Community Relations, Tony Attah praised the communities and the CDB cluster leaderships for complying with the GMoU implementation procedures and process, and assured them that with GMoU framework, the Niger Delta communities would soon be transformed.

Represented at the event by the Manager, Government and Community Relations, Theo Wellington, the general manager urged the active GMoU clusters to take the destiny of their people in their hands, and ensure that the huge investment made in their development was prudently utilised for the benefit of posterity.

He also charged the participants to be vanguards for the promotion of the GMoU success stories in the Niger Delta by making independent visits to the cluster communities to verify projects for themselves.

Nelson Chukwudi