Star player in Nigeria’s upstream oil and gas sector, Total E&P Nigeria has raised its support in Nigeria’s informal sector development via capacity-building of startups and in the process, reverse the current negative tide on poverty in Nigeria.
Explaining the activities of the company in achieving business intelligence development for small businesses, the Executive General Manager, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Total Upstream companies in Nigeria, Mr. Vincent Nnadi, said the current state of Nigeria as home to the highest number of people living below the poverty line has made the obligation even more urgent.
He said capacity building remains one of the ways to transform the society through human, social and economic development in a way and manner the country will align with the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to drive enduring sustainable economic growth.
Speaking during the closing ceremony of its “Business Sustenance for New Entrepreneurs” programme, Nnadi said the two-day training is part of Total CSR initiative, designed to transform selected trained youths from basic skills acquisition to professional entrepreneurs with requisite knowledge-based capacity for sustaining their businesses.
Represented by the General Manager, Corporate Social Responsibility, Dr. Charles Ngeribara, he noted that Total’s capacity development initiatives are empowering as many people as possible, and actively supporting nation-building efforts in line with the numbers one and eight SDGs, which are; “No Poverty”, and “Decent work and Economic Growth”.
“The 25 entrepreneurs who are graduating today had undergone initial skills acquisition training in paint manufacturing, inverter and solar systems production and installation, agriculture, web design and PC hardware installation, catering, hospitality and crafts under the youth empowerment, capacity building and skills acquisition programmes of Total Upstream companies between 2016 and 2018.”
While advising the graduating entrepreneurs to seize the opportunity offered by the programme to strengthen their businesses, and expand their roles as active agents of wealth creation to the nation, Nnadi averred that “We believe that following this integrated training, you will be more self-reliant and better developed in self advocacy. You will be able to communicate your ideas and become better team players”.
