In a bid to strengthen its relationship with neighbouring communities, Okomu Oil Palm Company Plc (OOPC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with The Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND), a non-profit organisation that promotes peace and equitable economic growth in the Niger Delta region.
The MoU aims to co-create and facilitate initiatives that are strategic to OOPC’s neighbouring communities’ social and economic peace and development.
Speaking prior to the signing of the memorandum of understanding, the managing director of OOPC, Dr Graham Hefer, said the company, which has its footprint in over 29 communities that cut across Ovia South West, Ovia North East, and Uhunmwonde local government areas, has for over a decade engaged these communities through the company’s corporate social responsibility program (CSR) with the aim of attracting visible development in these areas.
He noted that the involvement of PIND came about with the aim of cementing the already existing relationships between OOPC and its neighbouring communities, more specifically in the areas of peacebuilding, conflict prevention and resolution, community stabilisation, community needs assessments, and community-based programs to foster acceptable and sustainable social impact returns to both the communities and the company in the future.
The OOPC boss asserted that the reputation of PIND as a credible NGO was what spurred the company to enter into the agreement while expressing his optimism that this will benefit all parties involved.
Also speaking, the Programme Director of PIND, Dr Effiong Essien, asserted that having had over a decade of experience in the Niger Delta region, the organisation sought to partner with OOPC to help strengthen its presence in neighbouring communities as well as boost the economy of the communities through collaborative market-based, community-owned programs to mitigate conflicts and help increase economic opportunities within these communities, ensuring that economic progress occurred in a systemic, inclusive, and sustainable manner.
Dr Essien further stated that, apart from PIND’s conflict reduction skills, other areas of speciality of the organisation include reducing poverty, facilitating alternative clean energy solutions for remote coastal communities that are off the national grid, smallholder projects such as oil palm, and access to funding, amongst others.
Dr Essien commended the management of OOPC for its massive investment in its neighbouring communities over the past decade and said that with this MoU, the bar on the impact of the company in its neighbouring communities had been lifted.
The high point of the day was the symbolic signing of the memorandum of understanding between OOPC and PIND, signalling the beginning of the partnership for community development under the company’s already famous CSR program.
Present at the historical signing of the MoU were OOPC and PIND’s top management teams.
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