An indigenous oil firm, Seplat Energy, has reaffirmed its commitment to its Joint Venture (JV) Entrepreneurship Fellowship Programme, which aims at developing participants’ leadership skills, social entrepreneurship, and business management abilities, through customised and targeted capacity building workshops.
At an event to celebrate the past beneficiaries (Fellows) of the programme, which began in 2019, the firm made further commitment of N16.5 million funding in seed money to the Programmes partners, Conversation for Change (C4C).
The Director of External Affairs & Sustainability, Seplat Energy, Dr. Chioma Nwachuku, noted that through the Seplat JV/C4C partnership, the company has trained and supported three batches of Fellows, comprising 55 youths.
“Each beneficiary has shown resilience, creativity and innovation throughout the yearly programme and has become our proof that we could truly make Nigeria better by investing in the youth population,” she said.
Delivering a lecture, themed: ‘Unleashing Nigeria’s untapped Potential through Entrepreneurship and Sustainability’, a former Independent Non-Executive Director of Seplat Energy Plc and Scholar at Said Business School, University of Oxford, Ms. Arunma Oteh, said the scheme was to build more capacity and further equip the entrepreneurs.
Oteh commended Seplat Energy JV and its partner, C4C, for their commitment to youth empowerment, stating that their activities have helped reduce unemployment and ameliorate the poverty level and have also contributed to growth and prosperity.
“Seplat Energy’s approach to sustainability has put the company on a very high pedestal among its peers, thus making the company a reference point in Nigeria and internationally,” Oteh noted.
Similarly, an Independent Non-Executive Director and member of the Sustainability Committee of the Seplat Energy Board, Bello Rabiu, restated the company’s continuous commitment to encouraging and supporting entrepreneurship in the country. He noted that youth entrepreneurs are major change catalysts in any economy and all hands must be on deck in the quest to empower them and by extension, reduce unemployment.
The President of C4C, Dr. Kechi Ogbuagu, affirmed that with the collaboration of Seplat Energy and her Partners, the goal of supporting youth entrepreneurs has received a huge boost, thus aiding a better future for the country.