… Lauds JV Partners Green Energy, Lekoil on CSR, Community Relations
By Godwin Chukwumaechi, Port Harcourt
The Ikuru Town Host Communities Development Trust (HCDT) on Monday distributed livelihood packages worth N50 million to natives and residents of Ikuru Town in Andoni Local Government Area of Rivers State.
This is as chairman of the Board of Trustees of the HCDT, Prof. Lysias Gilbert, has appealed to the Green Energy International Limited and Lekoil and Gas Company Limited Joint Venture partners to further reach out to the community beyond the stipulated 3% operating expenses (OPEX) by sponsoring more projects in the community.
The exercise which was the second by the HCDT saw about 1700 persons comprising indigenes and residents receiving bags of rice, vegetable oil, tomatoes and other condiments even as board members of the HCDT led by Prof. Gilbert were on hand to ensure that no one beneficiary was excluded.
Families thronged the Ikuru Town podium venue of the livelihood packages distribution carting away their portions as the HCDT ensured that no qualified beneficiary was left out before leaving the venue when the packages were totally exhausted.
Speaking to journalists during the exercise, the Board Chairman of the Ikuru Town HCDT, Prof. Lysias Gilbert explained that the programme was a way of “reaching out to our people and putting smiles on their faces in the spirit of the season and in conformity with one of the sustainable development goals that talks about zero poverty”.
He said the Ikuru Town HCDT was a creation of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) that was enacted in 2021 and that on the basis of a community development plan, an outcome of a needs assessment, carried out by a qualified consultant adding; “that is part of what we are doing, this end of year livelihood support package is to enable us reach out to a lot of people; indigent men and women especially, in the community”.
“So what we did, it took us some time, you know, members of the trust we had sent to the community and through the age grade system and through also some of the organs in the community like the elders, men, women, youths. So we were able to generate names, names of households, families through which we will be able to distribute the packages that we have”.
Prof. Gilbert said that the exercise was the second the HCDT was embarking on after its formal inauguration in January 2023.
He said “Our HCDT was established by Green Energy and Lekoil JV according to PIA stipulations so they didn’t provide funds until November last year. So in effect we started operation in November last year when they gave us our 3% operating expenses (opex). It was with that, in fact the first programme we had was a livelihood support programme like this last year.
“We collated names of members of our community and in December last year we came for this same project during which we shared 10kg of rice to households in the community.
“This year again we are here to do the same thing but we improved on the 10kg rice last year, this year we have added tomatoes, packs of Maggi and one litre of groundnut oil”.
He emphasised that between November last year and this December, the HCDT had carried out a lot of other programmes and projects namely; bursaries, skills acquisition and other infrastructure projects, like renovation and upgrade of schools and commencement of a major water programme to reticulate potable water to the entire community.
He stressed that all of these programmes and projects run into hundreds of millions of naira adding that in 2025 the HCDT would pursue the completion of all the on-going projects and commencement of others which include, scholarship awards, upgrade of the community health centre, among others.
Speaking on the plans of the HCDT in 2025, Prof Gilbert said; “Immediate priority is the completion of the water project, which is a legacy project, it’s legacy because once we are able to supply water to this community, members of the community will be highly excited.
“Secondly, we are looking forward to the provision of power supply. Once you are able to supply power, you have a lot of small businesses that will start growing in our community. The need for rural – urban migration to a very great extent will be minimised in our community.
“We also want to upgrade the health centre and also carry out advocacy programme by reaching out to relevant government agencies to start sending resident medical doctors here. Once we are able to upgrade the facilities, we reach out to them.
“And then we also have our own on-going bursary where we are going to add scholarships programme to it. Last year, it was just bursary but this year we are also going to include scholarships. We select a group of bright students we are going to sponsor until they graduate from their various institutions of learning.
He commended the JV partners- Green Energy International Limited and Lekoil Oil and Gas Company Limited- for their faithfulness in payment of the 3% opex but appealed to them that they should not limit themselves to the 3% opex.
“As a community, we have a lot of needs that even the 3% opex is not enough to take care of. So in the forthcoming year we are looking forward to a situation where they will be so kind hearted to reach out to us and our community by helping us sponsor more projects in the community outside the 3% opex”, Prof. Gilbert appealed.
