By EHIME ALEX,
NATIONAL ACCORD, Lagos –
Undoubtedly, Nigeria is faced with an avalanche of socio-economic challenges which include hunger, poverty, unemployment, poor healthcare, inadequate infrastructural facilities, and illiteracy. These impediments have largely affected the growth and development of the country.
Put plainly, 40.1 per cent of the country’s population are poor. This translates to over 82.9 million considered poor by national standards, Borno State excluded, according to a recent report by the National Bureau of Statistics on “Poverty and Inequality in Nigeria 2019.” It states that on the average, 4 out of 10 individuals have real per capita expenditures below N137,430 per year.
Currently, Nigeria has 206.1 million people, equivalent to 2.64 per cent of the total world population, as estimated by the United Nations. But with the growing rate of 3.2 per cent a year, there is a projection that the country’s population will reach 402 million people by 2050. What this means is that the rapid population growth might continue to outstrip economic growth, which stood at about 2.9 per cent in 2019.
If drastic measures and adequate development initiatives are not taken into consideration to match the growing population and level of poverty, the country and its citizens could become poorer in coming years.
However, in 2015, the Federal Government saw a need to create a National Social Investment Program under the direction of the National Social Investment Office to ensure a more equitable distribution of resources to vulnerable populations, including children, youth, and women, as well as address the issue of poverty and help increase economic development.
While introducing the initiative, the federal government said Nigeria has a large deficit, and has issues around capacity. It also recognized that for the country to achieve the goal of being a top economy by 2030, it needs strategic plans to support the most vulnerable in the society and catalyze productivity, especially in its youthful workforce – potential entrepreneurs.
Social investment, as the name goes, is investing in people’s lives to provide socially valued goods and services. It can be publicly or privately handled. Its main policy design is to strengthen people’s skills and capacities and support them to participate fully in employment and social life.
This impact-focused investment has a wide range of social needs, which include but not limited to access to healthcare, finance, education, food security, water, housing, energy infrastructure, job creation, entrepreneurship, gender equality, and climate change adaptation.
Committed to the development of social responsibility initiatives, Shell Companies in Nigeria, (SCiN), a conglomerate of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), a wholly-owned Shell subsidiary, which operates an unincorporated joint venture (SPDC JV); Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited (SNEPCo); Shell Nigeria Gas Limited (SNG) and Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited, has been focused in providing social investment initiatives to empowering people, communities and businesses in Nigeria.
According to the Shell group, Nigeria is a thriving and vibrant country, offering opportunities for people to improve their livelihoods. It believes that scale of the opportunity is mirrored by the scale of the challenges to provide affordable energy, education, healthcare and conditions for local businesses to grow.
Nigeria as its largest concentration of social investment spending, the Shell group in 2019, made a direct social investments of $40 million on access to affordable healthcare, education and enterprise support, acceleration to energy, among others.
Since 2006, the Shell group has continued to engage in community-driven programmes worth $252 million investment, and 667 thousand people have benefited from its mobile health outreach while 6,000 university grants have been awarded.
The companies undertake two types of social investment activities: direct social investment across Nigeria, which focuses on community and enterprise development, education, community health, access-to-energy, road safety and since 2018, biodiversity; and community-driven development programmes and initiatives in the Niger Delta, which focus on various themes as determined by benefitting communities and delivered through a Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU). Currently, there are 39 active GMoUs in Abia, Bayelsa, Delta, Imo and Rivers States.
In 2019, three new GMoUs were deployed and 10 GMOUs renewed. The GMoUs provide a secure five-year funding for communities to implement development projects of their choice. The GMoU projects also cover community health, education, enterprise development and social infrastructure, such as improved water and power supply, and sanitation.
Since 2006, a total of $252 million has been disbursed to communities through these GMoUs.
Further records showed that since 2010, more than 27,000 babies have been delivered safely at Obio Cottage Hospital in Port Harcourt. The Community Health Insurance Scheme launched in 2010 at the Obio Cottage Hospital, is a secondary health care centre in Port Harcourt.
In 2018, Shell LiveWIRE Top Ten Innovators Awards saw Nigerian Yolo Bakumor Smith, CEO of De-Rabacon Plastics emerging as the first-ever winner for his business. According to Smith, “There is often a paper-thin line between success and failure in business, especially for a start-up. The training, support systems and valuable networks I have gained over the last five years courtesy of Shell LiveWIRE, have gone a long way to ensure that my business start-up, De-Rabacon Plastics is thriving.”
“Shell’s approach to supporting local enterprises to grow and excel is enabling us to scale up our business and focus on designing eco-friendly, energy-efficient and affordable products. Today, my organisation employs 16 people and has recycled over 800,000 tonnes of plastic waste. We plan to achieve two million tonnes by the end of 2020,” Smith says.
For decades, the Shell group have invested in healthcare, education, among other laudable initiatives in Nigeria and have continued to support a range of other programmes:
ACCESS TO AFFORDABLE HEALTHCARE
Affordable quality healthcare is a critical enabler to any community. It improves health indicators and outcomes and strengthens families, educational attainment and business opportunities.
Shell has supported community health programmes in Nigeria since the 1980s with equipment and pharmaceutical donations, emergency care and screening services, hospital maintenance and focused interventions on HIV/AIDS, malaria, cancer and vision care.
Presently, Shell seeks to increase access to health services, introduce health insurance schemes and strengthen health systems. It has continued to work with key stakeholders to achieve universal health coverage by increasing access to health and the uptake of services in the communities. Worthy of note is the SPDC JV and SNEPCo support of 20 healthcare centres and signature intervention projects throughout the country.
These projects include Health-In-Motion (HIM) community care programme – a mobile health outreach programme that takes free medical services to where people live and work. Funded by the SPDC JV and SNEPCo, it reaches an average of 50 communities annually.
In 2019, the HIM services benefitted 27,490 individuals in Imo, Bayelsa, Delta, Rivers and Ogun States. It has since its launch in 2010, benefited more than 667,000 people.
Related to this health programme is the Community Health Insurance Scheme (CHIS), which is a partnership between SPDC, Rivers State Government and local communities. The CHIS programme launched in 2010 at Obio Cottage Hospital, a secondary health care centre and aims to provide affordable, quality healthcare to the people of Rivers State, costs individuals $30 per year and covers about 95 per cent of people’s health care needs.
Since 2010, more than 67,000 people have been enrolled, and in 2019, nearly 8,500 new clients registered. This hospital has also seen an increasing uptake of services. For example, the average number of patients using the facility has increased from about 600 at inception to about 7,700 per month in 2019, making Obio one of the most utilised health facilities in the region.
This successful pilot has now been expanded to three other locations, highlighting the possibility for extended healthcare coverage in Nigeria.
Oloibiri Health Programme (OHP) is also a Shell-sponsored local government initiative in the Ogbia area of Bayelsa State. It is designed to improve health outcomes in an innovative and holistic way. The initiative included a full refurbishment of the Kolo General Hospital, which was inaugurated in July 2019.
More broadly, the initiative focuses on improving and maintaining health, not just treating illness. It strengthens local healthcare systems by upgrading and integrating facilities, training and supporting local healthcare and community workers and ensuring a reliable supply of medicines.
The programme has seen a five-fold increase in service utilisation to 4,210 patients in 2019 from an average 833 patients in 2017. It has also provided training for over 130 health workers at community, local and state government levels. In addition to this, it has trained 117 volunteers as facility-based extension workers in house-to-house healthcare.
To anchor on the sustainability of the OHP, the initiative aims to establish the Oloibiri Health Foundation that will institute the Ogbia Health Insurance Scheme akin to the scheme in place at the Obio Cottage Hospital. According to Shell, the scheme will be launched with a one-time contribution from it and the Bayelsa State Government. The Oloibiri Health Programme included a refurbishment of the Kolo General Hospital, which was inaugurated in 2019.
SUPPORTING EDUCATION
Educating Nigeria’s young population is critical to the success of the country. Shell Companies in Nigeria have had a long history of supporting education through scholarships and other initiatives. Since the 1950s, the Shell scholarship schemes have supported several thousands of students – many of whom are among Nigeria’s business, political and social leaders.
In 2019, the SPDC JV and SNEPCo invested $7.8 million in scholarships. Since 2011, the schemes have awarded more than 9,400 secondary school grants and over 6,000 university grants to students.
• Cradle-to-Career Scholarships
There is also the SPDC JV’s and SNEPCo’s investment in the Cradle-to-Career (c2c) scholarship programme, which pays for children from rural communities to attend some of the country’s top secondary schools. The SPDC JV on its part has awarded a cumulative 600 c2c scholarships in the Niger Delta. In 2014, SNEPCo began offering these scholarships to applicants across the country, and so far, 471 students have benefitted.
Since 2010, more than 1,000 students have equally received scholarships. The scholarships cover the full cost of tuition, travel, accommodation, uniforms, books and laptops. Students completing the c2c secondary school scheme also receive support from Shell through the University Scholarship scheme. This support is dependent on the students securing admission to a Nigerian University.
In Tertiary education, lack of world-class research institutions and limited access to technology have been identified as key challenges in enabling Nigerians to play an even greater role in the oil and gas sector. However, Shell has continued to invest in advancing education through university scholarships, student exchange programmes and focused research.
Since 2011, the SPDC JV and SNEPCo awarded more than 6,000 university scholarships. As part of the drive to motivate students and reward the high performers in the University Scholarship Scheme, the highest-achieving students are also given the opportunity to participate in the SPDC JV Students.
In Industrial Work Experience (SIWE) programme, the SPDC JV also established the Shell Niger Delta Post Graduate scholarship programme, which has benefitted 92 students from the region over the last decade. The programme offers one-year scholarships to three UK universities for studies related to the oil and gas industry.
To promote the emergence of industry-ready graduates at university level, Shell also invests in specific initiatives in Nigerian universities. The SPDC JV, in collaboration with the University of Benin, funds a Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Geosciences and Petroleum Engineering and has in 2017, collaborated with the Rivers State University to set up a CoE, which specialises in Marine and Offshore Engineering. The CoEs offer specialised post-graduate degrees in Geosciences, Petroleum Engineering and Marine and Offshore Engineering respectively. Each programme lasts for 18 months and culminates in a six-month internship with an oil and gas company, some within Shell.
By the end of 2019, over 75 students had graduated from the programmes and over 81 per cent of these graduates are said to be currently employed.
ENTERPRISE SUPPORT
Shell works to improve the chances for Nigerians to achieve their ambitions. In addition to providing access to loans to small and medium businesses which could become Shell suppliers and contractors, there is also the LiveWIRE youth enterprise development programme.
Launched in Nigeria in 2003, the LiveWIRE provides training and finance to young people between the ages of 18 and 35 to start or expand their own businesses.
In 2019, 140 people benefitted from the LiveWIRE programme, receiving training in enterprise development and management, as well as business start-up grants. More than 7,000 Nigerian youths have so far been trained under the programme and almost 4,000 young entrepreneurs provided with business grants.
In 2019, two Nigerian enterprises were shortlisted for the Shell Global Top Ten Innovators Awards, a global competition which highlights and rewards businesses that demonstrate excellence in innovation as well as giving entrepreneurs a chance to shine on a global platform. The enterprises were FarmToJuice and Foods Nig. Ltd and Basiled Energy Ventures.
In 2014, Shell extended its LiveWIRE programme to Ogoniland despite the fact that the SPDC JV no longer produces oil and gas in the area. Shell’s aim was to help raise living standards and reduce crude oil theft in the area through the promotion of sustainable alternative livelihoods. This was in line with one of the recommendations of the 2011 United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Report for the restoration of the Ogoni environment.
In 2018, 100 Ogoni youths from communities near the Trans Niger Pipeline participated in training with 80 top performing trainees received business start-up funding amounting to more than $90,000.
In 2019, the Ogoniland programme gave way to a livelihood programme led and executed by the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP), an agency established by the federal government and to which the SPDC JV contributes funds. The programme was meant to train 1,200 Ogoni women in various skills.
SHELL LIVEWIRE
Every year, Shell LiveWIRE supports thousands of individuals to access the knowledge, skills, networks and resources to turn their business ideas into successful enterprises which provide a sustainable income, create jobs and drive innovation. The purpose of the LiveWIRE is to improve opportunities for young people to realise their potential through the creation and development of their own businesses.
ASSISTANCE AND SAFETY
Shell Companies in Nigeria also understand their responsibility when it comes to providing support for humanitarian and safety programmes such as those providing relief to displaced persons or training for emergency workers.
For many years, Shell has sustained a culture of care by supporting humanitarian programmes in Nigeria to save lives, especially during crisis and disaster.
In 2017, it made a contribution of more than $3 million to the Mercy Corps and Family Health International programme benefitted over 70,000 displaced persons in northeast. In 2018, SPDC provided relief materials worth $1 million to communities hit by floods in the Niger Delta and two other severely impacted states in the country.
In 2019, SNG continued to demonstrate its commitment to road safety in Nigeria by extending existing collaboration with the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Ogun State to Rivers State. The campaign has held 26 road safety awareness events and reached more than 5,000 people since its launch in 2007.
SNG also held a one-day hydrocarbon training for firefighters from Abia and Ogun States to further strengthen their capability.
Also, since 2018, SPDC and SNEPCo have committed $6 million to the government-driven strategic intervention projects for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Yobe and Borno States. The projects focus on immediate relief and critical support related to health, water and sanitation, education and shelter.
By the end of 2019, the SPDC JV and SNEPCo completed the distribution of food, essential hygiene kits and other relief items to over 5,500 vulnerable households in IDP camps and impacted communities, while SPDC added its commitment to project work on school reconstruction, and teacher training, upgrading of a Primary Health Care Centre and water and toilet facilities in Yobe State.
ACCELERATING ACCESS TO ENERGY
Enterprise development, opportunities for education and access to affordable healthcare hinge upon being able to have reliable and cost-effective energy. On this, Shell has aimed to provide a reliable electricity supply to 100 million people, primarily in Africa and Asia by 2030, with Nigeria in the big picture.
Despite its oil and gas resources, Nigeria has one of the highest levels of energy poverty in the world. In addition to investing in Nigeria’s gas development and distribution network, Shell has established All On to boost off-grid supply to homes and small businesses in the Niger Delta. In December 2019, Shell made a significant additional long-term financing commitment to All On.
DISCLAIMER
The OPINION / COLUMN is authored by independent contributors to the National Accord Newspaper. While contributors adhere to our editorial guidelines, they are not employed by the National Accord Newspaper. The perspectives and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of the National Accord Newspaper or its staff.