As part of its corporate social responsibility thrust, one of Nigeria’s oil and gas conglomerates and operator of the Ikorodu Natural Gas Distribution Franchise Zone, Ikorodu- Falcon Petroleum Limited, has empowered 58 women within the Ikorodu community through its Vocational Skills Acquisition and Women Empowerment Programme.
The CSR initiative entails a three-month intensive vocational training, a mandatory one-month industrial placement and an endowment pack to start-up.
Speaking during the graduation ceremony in Lagos on Thursday, the Managing Director, Falcon Petroleum Limited, Prof. Joseph Ezigbo, described the initiative as the company’s way of giving back to the society by empowering the less privileged women and also to entrench a better relationship with its host community, Ikorodu.
Ezigbo noted that this gesture was in consonance with the ‘Train a woman, train a nation maxim geared towards empowering the women to become self-sufficient and financially capable of sustaining self, family and the country at large.
According to the Falcon boss, the graduation ceremony for first batch of beneficiaries is just the beginning as the CSR programme was an ongoing initiative with many more people to benefit in the coming years.
He also stated that beyond the skills acquisition training and endowment packs, Falcon had set up a system to monitor and evaluate the impact of the program to ensure the sustainability of the initiative.
He added, “As a company, we are very passionate about touching lives positively as well as impacting the lives of the people of our host community and economies where we operate. We are indeed very glad on the graduation ceremony of the beneficiaries of our CSR women empowerment programme.”
In his keynote remarks on the occasion, the Lagos State Commissioner for Energy and Minerals Resources, Mr. Taofiq Tijani, commended Falcon Petroleum for the laudable initiative, which he noted would go a long way to impact positively on the lives of the beneficiaries and their community at large.
The commissioner called on other well-meaning corporate organisations to support the effort of the government in making lives better for the less privileged by emulating the worthy CSR initiative of Falcon Petroleum.
Speaking shortly after the presentation of certificates to the participants, the Executive Director, Falcon Petroleum, Mrs. Audrey Joe-Ezigbo, admonished the beneficiaries to make the best use of the unique opportunity given to them by the company by excelling in their various areas of vocational skills to better their lives and affect the community as a whole.