January 17, 2018

The Nigeria Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) says it spent N606 million on skill acquisition, health and education programmes for host communities in Edo, Delta and Imo states between 2016 and 2017.

The Manager, Community Relations of NPDC, Mr Dahiru Abubakar, made this known during the presentation of science libraries to Junior and Senior Secondary Schools in host communities across three states.

Abubakar, who was represented by an official of the company, Mr Noble Imabibo, said that the organisation would spend N92 million on scholarship awards in 2018.

According to him, 8,540 students benefitted from the company’s scholarship awards between 2016 and 2017.

He said that NPDC also paid out N246 million to 6,784 beneficiaries from Edo, Delta and Imo states in 2016, while 1,756 beneficiaries were paid N60.4 million in 2017.

Abubakar attributed the drop in the total paid out in 2017 to the handover of OMLs 26, 34, and 42 to Asset Management Teams (AMTs) and OML 30 to a new operator.

NPDC’s Managing Director, Mr Yusuf Matashi, who was represented at the occasion by Mr Ugo Atugbokoh, Manager, Community Relations and Security, said the company regards its host and impacted communities as stakeholders.

“One of our primary objectives in the partnership is to encourage education and knowledge.

“This project was, therefore, conceived to meet the needs of secondary schools in our host communities who may not have access to the latest books on science and technology subjects.

“Some of the books are for junior secondary school students to inspire early interest in the study of science subjects, while others are for senior secondary students.

“We selected books with lots of colourful illustrations to captivate interest and make learning easy and interesting.”

He said NPDC provided the libraries due to the importance of education in building strong, progressive and peaceful communities.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 16 schools in Edo, Delta and Rivers states were selected fo the project.