Daily Independent Online.
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Wednesday, July 21, 2004.
Shell spends N11.34b on community development, says report
By Segun Adeleye,
Special Correspondent, Abeokuta
Royal Dutch Oil Company, the Shell Petroleum
Development Company (SPDC), has spent $84 million (about N11.34 billion) on
various developmental projects, while partnering no fewer than 36
Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO), the Niger Delta Development Commission
(NNDDC) and other international agencies.
In its last year’s People and the
Environment Annual Report, the company said it paid $54 million to the NDDC with $30 million
spent on other community development programmes.
SPDC, while explaining the rationale for community
development, as against community assistance, which used to be the practice
years back, said the need to have the number of people, living on less than $1
(about N134) per day informed the paradigm shift.
“Poverty remains a serious and endemic problem
throughout Nigeria and is acute in parts of the Niger Delta, the core area of
operation for SDPC. This conscious shift marked the first significant effort within
SDPC towards bringing structure and planning to the delivery of community
development. The goal was to empower the communities by helping to build their
capacity and confidence to take the lead role in decisions for their own
development,” the report stated. Specifically, SDPC has entered into a
five-year $20 million deal with the United Sates Agency for International
Development (USAID) to develop Nigeria’s capacity in agriculture, health
and business enterprise, among other areas.
Besides, there was another three-year $4.5 million
partnership with Africare to reduce deaths occasioned by malaria and related
diseases.
The company’s hope, according to the report,
was to move from community development to sustainable community development
(SCD). Meanwhile, a Bayelsan
community leader, Mr. Samuel Sokoroma, has commended SDPC for putting the
ownership of community projects in care of the beneficiaries, praying that the
Shell’s supervisory mechanism be strengthened
