Despite a crippling recession and financial stress in the oil industry, over N8 billion is said to be waiting to be spent by the various host communities of the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC).
This figure was revealed last weekend by Igo Weli, SPDC’s general manager, external relations, who for years managed the Local Content Department of Shell. The Rivers State-born general manager debunked claims by some communities of neglect, saying instead, communities have such huge amount to draw from, but must meet draw-down conditions.
Host community accounts were created in 2007 when the memorandum of understanding (MoU) system was discarded to usher in the Global MoU (GMoU) system. The former required SPDC to do the spending and execution of projects for communities agreed by both parties. The GMoU however hands over all funds to the community clusters, which have governing structures to select projects within their budgets based on oil production quota of each cluster, execute and supervise through project management techniques.
By 2011 ending, over N7 billion had been pumped to the clusters around the oil region and N5 billion had been drawn down. Now, SPDC says over N8 billion is right there in those accounts waiting for more project execution.
Shell begins by awarding scholarships to host communities to boost knowledge and intellectualism. Later, they started doing projects believing they would appease the hosts, but more agitation rather followed and legacy projects began to mount. This was when the company decided on the GMoU system, which seemed to attract huge applause because the host communities seemed to take their development destinies in their hands.
A cluster contains some oil-bearing communities that are around same area. They have their leadership including women, youths, chiefs, NGOs, etc. This reports to higher level where local council chairmen and some state government officials are involved. These layers of authority ensure that the rules are obeyed and the funds are properly disbursed for projects approved by the cluster assembly.
As far back as 2012, about 2440 direct participants in the GMoU capacity-building processes had been trained had developed capacity to design projects, prepare and vet contract bids, award contracts, resist pressure, supervise the execution, vet job certificates for drawdown purposes, and carry out project management, a rare competence in Nigeria at the moment.
There were also over 7,500 other persons in the Niger Delta communities who can now plan entrepreneurial projects and manage their own businesses and still meet global best business practices. These are the numerous indigenes of Shell host-communities who now participate in bidding for contracts, requesting for loans or applying for skills acquisition, human capacity assistance or scholarship slots at home and abroad.
These are executed from their own community chests (funds) run by their own elected kinsmen and women with about N8 billion now dedicated to this purpose by the SPDC.
Thousands of projects have been executed by GMoU process, though some hitches have also occurred, according to insiders.
Weli spoke in the face of protests by Belema community in Akuku-Toru Local Area of Rivers State who said in 37 years of oil presence, nothing was done for the community by Shell. They therefore demanded that Shell should vacate the oil mining licence 25 and hand it over to an indigenous oil company.
According to Weli, there is a Kula GMoU cluster that should hold funds for areas in that place and that it could not be true that for 37 years, a host community got nothing, He said the records were there for communities denying what they got; scholarships, jobs, contracts, projects, etc.
Communities issues cannot draw funds from the accounts and such matters also affect some host communities, he said. Those with breaches also suffer hold-on order that may debar them from accessing the funds. Many communities have however built huge projects, offered foreign scholarships, set up hospitals and health insurance schemes that often overshadow government hospitals.
