Shell gives grants to 1,560 students

The Managing Director, Shell Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), Mr. Osagie Okunbor has said the company has awarded grants to 930 secondary school students and 638 university undergraduates in 2015. He said the company had so far awarded a total of 10, 401 secondary school and 3,532 university grants awarded over the last five […]

The Managing Director, Shell Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), Mr. Osagie Okunbor has said the company has awarded grants to 930 secondary school students and 638 university undergraduates in 2015.

He said the company had so far awarded a total of 10, 401 secondary school and 3,532 university grants awarded over the last five years.

The MD said that Shell Companies in Nigeria have a long history of supporting education through scholarships and other initiatives, noting that the companies believed that early exposure of students to proper education played key role in improving the capabilities of Nigerians.

Okunbor said this while delivering a key-note address at the 4th Professor Barth Nnaji Biennial Lecture Series held at the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), Agbani, near Enugu.

The theme of this year’s lecture was “Science and Technology Challenges Facing the Nigerian Oil and Gas Producing Companies in a Distressed Economy.” He said that last year, $10 million was invested in scholarships by the SPDC operated Joint Venture and SNEPCo, stressing that the company’s ‘cradle-to-Career’ programme paid for children from rural communities to enable them attend some of the country’s top secondary schools. He added that 60 students received scholarships under the programme in 2016, “bringing the total number of beneficiaries to 470 since the scheme was launched in 2010.”