By Michael Eboh

CHEVRON Nigeria Limited, CNL, said it had invested about N17 billion over the last 10 years to provide about 580 projects, benefitting about half a million people across the country.

In his presentation at the just concluded Sixth African Petroleum Congress and Exhibition (CAPE VI) in Abuja, the General Manager, Policy, Government and Public Affairs, CNL, Mr. Deji Haastrup, said the investments were made possible through the Global Memorandum of Understanding, GMoU model.

He said the GMoU is a community driven sustainable development model that involves the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC and Chevron, state governments and communities. The governance structure ensures that resources accruable from the oil and gas business through social investments directly benefit the people in the local communities.

According to him, the GMoU had built community capacity to plan for, design and implement development projects by themselves, and had also provided a platform for communities in remote areas to leverage funds from other donors while providing for their needs in an inclusive manner.

Haastrup noted that aside from its businesses in the oil and gas sector, Chevron and its partners had over the years, continued to make social investments for human capacity development. In the area of creating skilled employees from local communities, they had also ensured improved access to education and healthcare and boosted local and regional economies.

He further said the company’s Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta, PIND, had been able to work with its partners to improve the productivity and income of farmers and businesses through better farming practices and use of technologies.

This, he noted, is in fulfilling its commitment to improving the standard of living for people in the Niger Delta region, adding that PIND was launched in 2010 with an initial funding of $50 million.