Special Assistant to Delta state governor on Youth and Community Development, Barr. Eric Omare has urged multinational oil companies operating in the state to take a clue from the state government job and wealth creation programme in the implementation of their various corporate social responsibility programme to their host communities.
Omare who made the call during a courtesy visit to the management of NECONDE Nigeria Limited in Warri, commercial nerve centre of the state on Tuesday, said that the state government approach to youth unemployment scourge has been adjudged to be one of best by scheme development experts as such the multinationals need to forge a synergy with the state government in the new approach to fight unemployment scourge and youths restiveness.
According to him, some of the programmes of the multinationals directed toward youths empowerment have been obsolete and ineffective in tackling the scourge of unemployment as such it was pertinent for multinational to model their youths engagement programme after the state government Skill Training and Entrepreneurship Programme (STEP) as well as the Youth Agricultural Entrepreneurs Programme (YAGEP) which promises to take the youths off the streets and make them entrepreneurs.
While underscoring the significance of the needed synergy and collaboration between the state government and multinationals, Omare stated that such partnerships was crucial for the scheme to succeed because the STEP and YEGAP programmes were the bedrock of state government five-agenda.
He however expressed the state government determination and commitment to tackle youths unemployment problems head-on in the state, emphasizing that government would need the collaboration and partnership of the International Oil Companies and other oil firm operating in the state to tackle the problem which he said the state government cannot solve alone.
He also urged the oil companies to always give priority to the host communities in their employment opportunities adding that while the state government was doing its part to ensure peaceful atmosphere for their businesses to thrive, the oil companies should also do their part by engaging the host communities through purposeful programme and employment opportunities.
Omare, who has been on familiarization tour to oil companies and communities around Warri, also called on the multinationals to ensure that their community development fund are tied to a particular project rather than channeling the development funds through the community leaders saying that such approach was often the reason for unwholesome crisis and scramble for leadership of oil bearing communities.
“The crisis in most oil producing communities is as a result of scramble to control the community purse which is supposed to be a community development purse so if such monies are directed to a particular project, there will be no basis for people to scramble over the purse or tussle over community executive position”, he added.
Speaking on issues of ghost workers which have been posing some challenges to several oil companies within the state, Omare said that government frown at the development as it only cause more crisis to oil companies and their host communities adding that the state government would work out modalities to tackle the scourge when it convey a tripartite meeting between the multinationals and oil bearing communities in no distant date.
Speaking earlier, the Chief Operating Officer of NECONDE, Mr. Oriseh J. Agbarah while thanking Omare for the visit, appealed to the state government to intervene in the seemingly problem they have with some communities in its OML 42 operational areas adding however that they were in the process of localising its Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU) to ensure smooth operation in the host communities.