The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC/Chevron Nigeria Limited Joint Venture through Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU) with communities around its area of operations, have spent over 20.6 billion naira on various programmes in Delta and other states, says Esimaje Brikinn, General Manager, Policy, Government, and Public Affairs, Chevron.
Brikinn said the money was spent on scholarship, schools, medical facilities, housing, agriculture and infrastructure improvements between 2005 and 2018.
Brikinn who spoke during the closing ceremony of a Training Programme for Teachers facilitated by Chevron Nigeria Limited, Jewels of Africa Foundations, and Partnership Initiative in the Niger Delta (PIND), said the core value of Chevron as a company is partnership.
According to Brikinn, who was represented by Sam Daibo, Area Manager, PGPA Field Operations, Chevron, the programme, which had forty-four participants was designed to help teachers upgrade their skills for effective dispensation of knowledge in a fast changing world.
He added that Chevron’s partnership with the Government of Delta State and other states as well as other stakeholders have been making it possible for them to add significant value to people’s lives through their Corporate Responsibility and Community Engagement initiative.
“Between 2007 and 2016 over two thousand nine hundred (2,900) Nigerian students have benefitted from the NNPC/CNL JV National Guard Scholarship, while Star Deep, a Chevron Company ants it’s partners in Agbami field have awarded over 16,000 scholarship for engineers and Medical Professionals since 2009.
“Similarly, over 11,300 students have benefited from NNPC/CNL JV’s community scholarship from 2008/2009 to 2017/2018 academic session,” Brikinn revealed.
While thanking all its partners for the success of the teaching programme, Brikinn noted that Chevron, as a global energyl company, “it’s vision is to be global energy company most admired for its people oriented partnership and performance.”
He added that Chevron builds trust and mutually beneficial relationship by collaborating with their communities, government, customers, suppliers and other business partners.
Brikinn said the training was the first fruit of its relationship with Delta State Government as well as Jewels of Africa Foundations.
“We thank Jewels of Africa Foundations (Africa Chapter) under the leadership of Lara Gureje-Odernde, President, Jewels of Africa Foundations Inc. for initiating this programme.
“In addition, there are several projects by the NNPC/CNL JV and other Chevron companies in Nigeria, which are either ongoing or have been completed across Delta State.
Representative of the Chief Inspector of Education, Uvwie Local Government Area, Delta State Mr. David Omijeh who also spoke on behalf of the state government appealed to the beneficiaries to see themselves as resource persons and go back to their various schools to teach other teachers what they have learnt.
In an interview with THE EMPIRE, the representative of Jewels of Africa Foundation, Mrs Mercy Folorunwa Sade, said the focus of the training is to reach more students by teaching the teachers with the best methodology of teaching.
“It’s easy to sponsor children, provide after school preparatory classes for them, but we believe we can reach more students if we can reach the teachers with the necessary skills to train these children to excellence,” she said.
One of the beneficiaries, Mrs Lauretta Oribioye, who spoke to THE EMPIRE, appealed to Chevron to extend the training to other teachers in the state.
She said, “This programme has really benefited us because it has taught us how to relate with the children in this twenty first century. They have also taught us the new methods of teaching our students that will benefit them.”
Another participant, Mr Solomon Edah, said the programme had afforded them the opportunity to know the modern way of teaching students in the schools.
He said, “We are in the twenty first century today and we cannot continue to teach the children with the old methods we have been taught. The teaching profession is a dynamic profession and we have to grow with the times.
“We really appreciate PIND for this programme, but we want them to expand the programme to more schools in the state so that other teachers can also benefit too.”
