Executive Director for GNPC Foundation, Dr. Dominic Eduah has defended an argument for the continued investment in the Ghanaian people and infrastructure development in various sectors of need.
One of these, under their Corporate Social Investments is an economic empowerment module dubbed ‘Skilled Artisans Project’; that has empowered thousands of Ghanaian youth, and still is, in various vocations and skill training.
Through a strategic plan, the GNPC Foundation entered into a five year memorandum of understanding with ASEDA Foundation, a non-profit organisation, to empower about 4,000 youth in over sixteen vocations. Currently, beneficiary coverage is within the Western, Western North and parts of Central Regions of Ghana. For the very first year into this initiative, some 400 beneficiaries were supported to advance career development in engineering, construction, textile, cosmetology and other vocations.
Speaking at the sidelines of a graduation ceremony last Friday, for these beneficiaries, Dr. Eduah reiterated that investments made into these areas are not a deviation of their core mandate, and interest to improve lives of the Ghanaian people.
“What GNPC seeks to do now is to bring in a new module… a new CSR module that could be emulated by a lot of institutions. It does a lot to go down, go very remote to help people. We are talking about oil proceeds. Should it be given to only those in the oil sector? A lot of people think that we should support those technical guys who want to go offshore etc, but we think thats not the point. You focus on that angle and you create a lot of pressure to everything that you are doing because everybody will want to work in the sector as far as the offshore oil and gas is concerned. You have to look at other sectors to lower the pressure” he explained.
Board Chair of the GNPC Foundation, Ogyeahoho Yaw Gyebi II is advocating the company widens its scope to capture a many young Ghanaians to benefit from the initiative.
“We are looking at the impact and we wouldn’t mind if we could increase it from 4000 to about 8,000 or 10,000. What is important is that, we give as many we can to people to benefit.