Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria, attracted the largest share of social investment spending by Shell Group globally in 2019.

Disclosing this, the 2020 edition of The Nigeria Briefing Notes of the Shell Companies in Nigeria (SCiN) said that “in 2019, Shell’s Nigerian businesses – SPDC, SNEPCo and SNG – made direct social investments of $40 million in Nigeria, making the country the largest concentration of social investment spending in the Shell Group.”

SPDC stands for Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited; SNEPCo means Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited; while SNG is Shell Nigeria Gas Limited.

The investments, according to Shell, were made in five different areas, namely, access to affordable healthcare; supporting education; enterprise support; accelerating access to energy; and assistance and safety.

Breaking down the range of social interventions, Shell highlighted the following:

■ Direct social investment across Nigeria, which focuses on community and enterprise development, education, community health, access-to-energy, road safety and since 2018, biodiversity.

■ Community-driven development programmes and initiatives in the Niger Delta, which focus on various themes as determined by benefitting communities and delivered through a Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU).

Shell disclosed that “there are 39 active GMoUs in Abia, Bayelsa, Delta, Imo and Rivers States. In 2019, three new GMoUs were deployed and 10 GMOUs renewed.” The GMoUs, it noted, “provide a secure five-year funding for communities to implement development projects of their choice. GMoU projects cover community health, education, enterprise development and social infrastructure, such as improved water and power supply, and sanitation. Since 2006, a total of $252 million has been disbursed to communities through these GMoUs.”

In the area of humanitarian assistance, Shell “sustained a culture of care by supporting humanitarian programmes in Nigeria to save lives, especially during crisis and disaster.”

These include projects and support to communities hit by floods in the Niger Delta and two other severely impacted states in the country, as well as humanitarian relief in the North East, where a lingering insurgency has led to a humanitarian catastrophe.

According to the 2020 The Nigeria Briefing Notes, “Since 2018, SPDC and SNEPCo have committed $6 million to the government-driven strategic intervention projects for Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) in Yobe and Borno states. The projects focus on immediate relief and critical support development related to health, water and sanitation, education and shelter.

“By the end of 2019, the SPDC JV and SNEPCo completed the distribution of food, essential hygiene kits and other relief items to over 5,500 vulnerable households in IDP camps and impacted communities. SPDC also commenced project work on school reconstruction, and teacher training, upgrading of a Primary Health Care Centre and water and toilet facilities in Yobe State.”

Shell assured of its commitment to continue to impact positively and significantly on Nigeria through its multifarious social intervention schemes and programmes despite the enormous challenges posed by the current COVID-19 pandemic and other operational challenges.

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