By Louis Achi
Upstream petroleum giant Chevron has deployed over $100million with its establishment of Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND), and also leveraged a corresponding amount from investors and partners.
It could be recalled that in 2010, Chevron established the PIND, a non-profit organisation working with partners to complement the GMoU, build peace and address the macro socio-economic issues in the Niger Delta region.
PIND’s programmes have continued to create socio-economic impact in the Niger Delta region through the twin pillars of economic development and peace building, leading to increased productivity and incomes, jobs, and reduced conflict, said Chevron Nigeria’s general manager, Policy, Government and Public Affairs, Esimaje Brikinn.
In a statement during Nigeria’s 63rd Independence Anniversary, Brikinn highlighted Chevron Nigeria’s focus on helping to engender the development of communities in the Niger Delta through the erstwhile Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU), a community-driven, participatory partnership model for community engagement pioneered by Chevron Nigeria in 2005.
According to him, “Through the GMoU, we provided funds to execute hundreds of projects in the communities where we operate in the Niger Delta region.
This has led to social investment projects benefiting over 600 communities in the Niger Delta area. We will be leveraging our experience with the GMoU in the implementation of the Host Community Development Trust (HCDT) provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).”
For the last 10 years, one of the Chevron Nigeria companies, Chevron Nigeria Limited, CNL, has spent an estimated annual average of $1 billion on Nigerian suppliers and service providers.
The chairman and managing director, Chevron Nigeria and Mid-Africa Business unit, Rick Kennedy, said: “Chevron does all this, not because it is compelled to, but because it is the right thing to do.”
Brikinn further narrated that Chevron Nigeria’s social investment footprint extends beyond its areas of operation, adding that, “Among other health initiatives, Chevron Nigeria built and donated a DNA Molecular laboratory to the University of Lagos Teaching Hospital, and the facility is very significant to medical research in Nigeria.”
In the heat of the coronavirus (“COVID-19”) pandemic, Chevron Nigeria donated a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) laboratory to Warri Central Hospital to support the Delta State government in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to other industry-collaborations.
Chevron Nigeria has also implemented health initiatives such as the Roll Back Malaria programmes, Prevention of Mother-to-Child transmission of HIV/AIDS and awareness programmes on River blindness, among others.
In its Deep offshore operations, Chevron Nigeria has continued to implement projects and programmes in the areas of health, education, and economic development across Nigeria.
Brikinn said, the Star Deepwater Petroleum Company Limited (a Chevron company) and its parties in the Agbami field – Famfa Oil Limited, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Equinor Nigeria Energy Company Limited, and Prime 127 Nigeria Limited – have been investing in fighting Tuberculosis (TB) with the construction and equipment of chest clinics in Nigeria to support the treatment and care of tuberculosis patients in Nigeria.
