The Governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodinma, has commended Shell Petroleum Development Company’s (SPDC) commitment to the development of infrastructure and human capital in communities hosting the Assa North Gas Development Project in the state. The Governor also endorsed the gas project’s Cluster Development Board’s (CDB) employment of community contractors.
Governor Uzodinma spoke recently through the State Commissioner for Environment, Dr. Ikay Njoku, at a ceremony by the CDBs to present cheques to community contractors for the third milestone for the over N360 million social investment projects designed to benefit people of the host communities.
“I commend the Assa North and Ohaji Egbema Cluster Development Boards as well as their community contractors for doing good jobs
so far. The Imo State Government will continue to monitor project execution to ensure that contractors do not lower the quality and standard of the jobs. We will have zero tolerance for corruption,”, he said.
Chairman of Assa North CDB, Mr. Godswill Uzomba Uho, and his counterpart for the Ohaji/Egbema CDB, Mr. Casmir Ekeruo, pledged to “continue to monitor the community contractors to ensure that the right standards are maintained for their people”.
SPDC’s External Relations Manager, Projects and Opportunities, Dr Banji Adekoya, emphasised “SPDC’s commitment to supporting projects that increase the capacity of our communities to deliver credible projects.”
Adekoya, represented by SPDC’s Community Interface and Social Performance Adviser, Mr. Victor Alimele, said, “The gas development project in Imo State is one of the priority projects of the Federal Government of Nigeria because its development will help the government deliver on its ambition to provide enough gas for domestic consumption, power generation and gas-based ammonia and urea fertilizers for farmers.”
“The Assa North Gas Development Project will be a major game-changer in our country’s quest for energy sufficiency and economic growth and, once again, it emphasizes Shell’s unshaken commitment to Nigeria both now and in the future,” he said.
“The project has the potential to be one of the largest domestic gas projects in the country when completed”, Adekoya added. When completed the Assa North Gas project will produce 600 million standard cubic feet of gas per day (mscf/d) from its upstream facilities and process 300mscf/d from the SPDC gas facility under construction to boost domestic gas supply for power generation and general industrialization.
To benefit the local communities, SPDC has a deliberate Nigerian and Community Content Strategy embedded in the projects’ operations to create vast opportunities for Nigerian firms in Engineering, Procurement and Construction contracts; immense employment and sub-contracting opportunities for workers and local contractors in the project area; as well as opportunities for capacity development initiatives, knowledge transfer and human capital development, Adekoya said.
The Cluster Development Board implements SPDC’s Global Memorandum of Understanding for delivering sustainable development projects in the host communities.
