CSR remains priority despite falling oil prices – Total

Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited (Deepwater District) has said it remains committed to a strong and unwavering budget for Corporate Social Responsibility despite dwindling oil prices in the international market. The company described the entire geopolitical zones as its host communities, saying it remained committed to implementing its CSR programmes across board. The Deputy General Manager, CSR/Public Affairs at the company, Dr. Nkoyo Attah, said this at the company’s Book Reading Initiative organised for secondary schools in Lagos. Attah said though current trends in the international oil market were putting pressure on operations of oil companies generally, Total had no plans to shrink its budgets as far as community and people development was concerned. According to her, the company has continued to carry out different assessment to ascertain the needs in the various geopolitical zones of the country, and implementing different projects across the country based on the recommendations of the needs assessment. She added, “The footprint of Total is all over. As long as Total continues to operate within Nigeria, we will continue to give back. “For this book reading initiative, we focused more on public schools. Our intention is to touch more of the less-privileged schools. We go more to those that are disadvantaged. We get licences and goodwill from the society, so there is the need to impact positively on it. “The best legacy you can leave is the goodwill of the people around you. We are able to do all these because we have the support of our stakeholders.” Commenting on the company’s contribution to educational development in the country, she says Total currently runs community and national merit scholarships involving over 10,000 scholars annually. Earlier, the company’s Deputy Managing Director, Lagos District, Mr. Charles Ngoka, said the company remained committed to driving young people into reading their way to success. “It is very critical we catch them young because the advantages of a good reading culture cannot be overemphasized,” he added. source: PUNCH