Eroton points to education as pillar, doles millions of naira to first 40 scholars

Eroton Petroleum and Exploration (P&E) has staked out education as a pillar of development, which the company will pursue vigorously in the coming years. For a start, a scholarship scheme has been flagged off in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, to build human capital development, especially in host communities.
At least, 40 secondary school students carted away between 100,000 and 150,000 each from the scheme of Eroton P&E, operator of oil mining license (OML) 18.
The benefiting students cut across several communities in Rivers State who host the indigenous oil company that started operations in 2014. The awards were presented last week in Port Harcourt.
According to Ebiaho Emafo, CEO of Eroton, the scholarships, overall, run into millions of naira, and the awardees will be under the sponsorship of Eroton till they finish secondary education.
Emafo says the reason for granting the scholarship scheme, which is in its maiden form, is because education is one of the company’s pillars as a way of giving back to the host communities and the state.
“Eroton has been in operation since 2014, and so we decided that education is one of our pillars, one of the ways we show appreciation to the communities for accepting us to work within their environment. So, we thought, education being one of our pillars, it would be good to give scholarship to young students who have done exceptionally well in their studies because we felt that the youth are the future.
“By giving them this scholarships, we hope (that they) be able to complete their studies, go on to the higher education and arm themselves for life (and) possibly get employment within Eroton or employment in other companies,” the CEO states.
The CEO discloses further that the company will soon provide scholarship opportunities up to undergraduate and Master’s degree levels, while assuring that the scholarship programme is sustainable as the company would continue it without defaulting.
“It is very sustainable; we are going to be working with the (host) communities for as long as our licenses are in operation. So we are going to continue to do this for the communities. There would be opportunity to sponsor university students – undergraduates. There would be opportunity to cover Master’s students and we would continue doing secondary education sponsorship as well,” he says.
Responding to Eroton’s gesture, Tamunosisi Gogo Jaja, Rivers State commissioner for education, praised the company and said it was encouraging for a company that started operations in less than four years to think about giving back to the communities and the state, a feat he said many companies that had long been operating in the state had failed to achieve.
“I wish to first of all thank Eroton E&P for the scholarship awards extended to the host communities. I have had (the) opportunity of discussing with one of the staff and he told me that this company is just three years old and this is what you have thought of doing.
“You have started on the right footing and I know you would go places. What happened to other companies will not happen to you; even the prayers of the parents of these children and the students themselves would cause you to excel,” Jaja, who was represented by Mae Solomon, a director – Quantity Assurance Development – at the state ministry of education, said.
He then asked the children to make foolproof of the scholarship. “I want to say that we are really proud of you (students). The statements you made when you were called upon to speak shows that you deserve the award and you would go places. This is just the beginning but I want to let you know that to whom much is given much is expected.
“I want you to make good use of this opportunity given to you. There is no sacrifice too great for you to make to see that you succeed and I believe that some of you would be employed by this company. Tell your siblings, tell your friends; let them also read. This opportunity given to you would keep you out of the streets.
“Don’t allow yourselves to be derailed in any way. Keep away from cultism; keep away from any social friends that would make you to derail. Face your books, there would always be time to play and when the time comes you would know,” he urged.
Eroton’s scholarship is coming at a time when the United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF) has estimated that 10.5 million children across Nigeria are out of school, a number that is expected to scale higher due to rising poverty rates in Nigeria.
At least 87 million Nigerians are living in extreme poverty, according to a report by Poverty Clock. Economic factors continue to threaten the number of children who are likely to finish basic education up to senior secondary level.
But for Godgift Joe and 39 others under the Eroton scholarship award, that huddle has been removed.
“We want to say a very big thank you to Eroton and we promise to make you proud, not only you, we are going to make Nigeria proud in all ramifications,” Joe promised on behalf of the beneficiaries.”
Meanwhile, the scholarship awards came barely a day after Eroton donated cash, a power-generating set, home appliances and foodstuff to three charities catering for children and the elderly across Port Harcourt.
Port Harcourt Children’s Home, a child care charity owned by the Rivers State government and run by the Ministry of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation, was given an FGOC-made 22 KVA power generating set to help light up the centre whose existing generator was found to grow faulty regularly.
Compassionate Centre, a charity catering for handicapped children and run by the Religious Sisters of Charity, received a cash donation of N4 million in two separate cheques of N2 million each; while a deep freezer, a refrigerator, a five burner gas stove, 10 bags of rice, two bags of beans, four gallons of groundnut oil, a gallon of palm oil, several tubers of yam and a bunch of plantain were handed to the Home of the Elderly, which is run by the Catholic Bishop of Port Harcourt, Camillus Archibong Etokudoh, and other three board members.
While presenting the donations to the charities, Eroton’s Head of Business Development, Dele Akhionbare, said:
“We want children to be children. Children are supposed to enjoy life; they are supposed to enjoy the early days before they start taking up responsibilities. So our mission is to ensure that during this period and going forward, we make their lives better.
“This is the first step and I promise, on behalf of NNPC/Eroton Joint Venture, we are going to continue this. We are going to appoint somebody to monitor cases that would undergo scrutiny and whatever the need, going forward, we would, to the best our ability, provide.”