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Ololade Omosan-Agie
Shell Nigeria announced on Sunday that 117 young entrepreneurs from the Niger Delta who graduated from its LiveWIRE programme had been awarded a N48m grant to either establish or expand their businesses.
The company announced this in a statement, saying the total number of beneficiaries of the youth enterprise development programme had increased to 7,913 since its inception in 2003.
Speaking at the graduation ceremony, Shell’s Country Head of Corporate Relations, Igo Weli, restated the commitment of SPDC to the development of Niger Delta youths and providing them alternative livelihood opportunities through LiveWIRE and other empowerment programmes in the wider social investment portfolio of the company
This is one opportunity to set you on the path of self-reliance and to be employers of labour as we have seen with previous beneficiaries of the programme many of whom are now employers with several others having also taken up the opportunity to play in SPDC’s supply chain as vendors,” Weli said.
Explaining the criteria for the selection of the beneficiaries from across the Niger Delta, SPDC’s Social Performance and Social Investment Manager, Dr Gloria Udoh, said the selection was from a pool of graduates from university or its equivalent who have credible business ideas and were able to produce a business plan.
