The Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas has explained that it adopted the Global Memorandum of Understanding model for easy empowerment of its host communities.
The company said the model was also adopted to allow host communities to take ownership of and drive their own development.
The General Manager, External Relations and Sustainable Development, Andy Odeh disclosed this during the NLNG launch of G-MoU phase two, involving six new clusters (Abua, Egi, Ekpeye, Kalabari, Ogba and Okrika communities).
Odeh said the G-MoU was a model for sustainable community development in which communities were grouped into clusters.
He said the company’s previous G-MOU with three communities, (Ubeta, Rumuji and Ogbumnuabali), who were hosts to the company’s Gas Transmission System (GTS) facilities and the Corporate Head Office respectively, had been yielding excellent results in those communities.
He said, “The decision to take up this model of relationship is based on the yearnings and observed developmental deficits in our GTS communities.
“The need to bridge the infrastructural gaps, to alleviate poverty and unemployment whilst building community capacity to drive their affairs necessitated this novel approach for CSR activities.
“The G-MOU framework has already been adopted by IOCs such as SPDC, Chevron and Total E&P, for managing relations with their respective host communities and it has proven fruitful over the years.
“While it may seem NLNG is late to the game, we believe our G-MOU model will benefit from learning from the experiences of these IOCs, and therefore, it is assured of successful outcomes.
“This GMOU will enable us to achieve the twin objectives of human and infrastructural capacity development in our host communities.
“This is because each community cluster will take a leadership role to drive its own development, by selecting, reviewing and executing its projects based on its identified needs.
“Of course, this will be in line with identified CSR pillars of NLNG which are Education, Health, Empowerment and Infrastructures.
“Communities will not be left to navigate this new terrain alone. Support will be provided by NLNG and other key stakeholders, including the Government and technical partners like our mentoring NGOs and the GMOU’s Technical Adviser who are all present with us today.”
