By Moses Patience Chat
The Government of Rivers State has endorsed the LiveWIRE Nigeria youth entrepreneurship programme of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC)
adding that it will collaborate with other corporate citizens to achieve its major objective for young men and women of the State to take up livelihoods that will give them a brighter future.
This was disclosed in a statement issued to journalists today by Abimbola Essien-Nelson the Media Relations Manager of SPDC.
According to the statement, the support for the programme was expressed by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Youth Development in Rivers State, Dr. Roland Obed-Whyte, at the graduation ceremony of 70 youth entrepreneurs of the Shell LiveWIRE Nigeria programme of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, SPDC, TotalEnergies, and Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) Joint Venture (JV), which took place in Port Harcourt, on Thursday.
At the graduation ceremony, Dr. Obed-Whyte stated that most of LiveWIRE Nigeria’s objectives are connected to the Ministry’s mandate of developing youths of Rivers State to be gainfully employed and self-reliant and that the collaboration with the State Government needs to be stronger now because the government’s major objective is to explore ways for young men and women to be employers of labour and to be able to create wealth for themselves and others.
He charged SPDC and its joint venture partners to look beyond the entrepreneurial training by creating necessary linkages and avenues for the LiveWIRE beneficiaries to access local and international markets. “Don’t leave the beneficiaries to their own devices after the training,” Dr. Obed-Whyte advised.
His counterpart in the State Ministry of Employment Generation, Mr. Samuel Egumah, advised that the Rivers State Government get involved in the activities of LiveWIRE Nigeria as it is necessary to enter the entrepreneurs in the State’s database for entrepreneurs. Also, collaborate with us to establish an Entrepreneurship Incubation Centre for the state.”
Also, the Director and Head of Corporate Relations at SPDC, Mr. Igo Weli, noted that about 8,000 Niger Delta entrepreneurs including people living with disabilities have benefitted from mentoring, training, networking opportunities, and start-up grants since the introduction of the LiveWIRE programme in 2003.
Weli, who was represented at the ceremony by SPDC Manager of Social Performance and Social Investment, Mr. Emmanuel Anyim, said that many of the beneficiaries have also had opportunities to participate in SPDC’s supply chain as vendors.
The 70 new beneficiaries, drawn from Niger Delta states, received training in basic business planning and management principles. They also received mentoring and start-up grants to establish new businesses or expand existing ones.
LiveWIRE Nigeria is the flagship enterprise development programme of SPDC. It is an international programme from Shell that strengthens local economies across the globe by promoting entrepreneurship and developing entrepreneurs