By Saidu Abubakar
Total expenditure on direct social investments by the three Shell companies in Nigeria and their partners in 2023 was $42.2 million, a 23% increase compared to $34.29 million in the previous year. Shell exclusively spent $14.1 million, Shell’s Bamidele Odugbesan, Communications, Media and NGO Relations Manager has said in a statement.
This was a significant mark-up in efforts by The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPDC,) Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Ltd (SNEPCo) and Shell Nigeria Gas (SNG) as well as their partners — Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC); TotalEnergies EP Nigeria Limited; NAOC and Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria Ltd – to promote the socio-economic development of host communities, it added.
The figures, contained in the recently published Shell Nigeria Briefing Notes for 2023, show that the investments were in health, education, road safety and enterprise programmes. In addition, SPDC and SNEPCo made $142 million statutory payments to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in 2023 alone.
SPDC Director and Country Head, Corporate Relations Igo Weli, said: “Our vision for the Niger Delta is for our people to take advantage of these and other investments to improve their lives. This is why we support communities to develop their capacities for need assessment and project planning and execution. Our aim is to contribute to the sustainable development of the region through collaboration with all stakeholders.”
Valuechain reports that since the 1950s, Shell Companies in Nigeria have also supported education through scholarships and other initiatives. In 2023, SPDC, SNEPCo and SNG invested more than $3 million in such programmes.