The Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) has at a stakeholder engagement on Wednesday, December 18, with the Western Regional House of Chiefs, explained its CSR mandate as managed and executed by the GNPC Foundation in Takoradi.

At the meeting held at the Best Western Atlantic Hotel, Board Chairman of the Corporation, Freddie Blay, stressed that GNPC’s CSR activities are a quintessential part of its core operations, as standard corporate practice requires the need to build and support communities from which organisations operate.

Considering GNPC’s unique role in the energy sector, it is even more instructive that it buys its social license to operate from communities and the people within its production enclave and Ghana as a whole. This he said, is done by carefully designing and rolling out social intervention programmes and projects, that alleviate the plight of communities and people.

He called for greater collaboration with the chiefs and their people as the Corporation continues to ensure that Ghanaians receive direct benefits from Ghana’s oil and gas exploration.

The Chiefs were taken through the business of GNPC for 2019 which included the upstream strides and challenges, the financials of the body corporate, the gains in the Jubilee-TEN-Sankofa and Voltain Fields, and the milestone successes in Corporate Social Investment.

General Manager in charge of Sustainability, Dr. Kwame Baah-Nuakoh and the Executive Director of the GNPC Foundation, Dr. Dominic Eduah, highlighted the numerous projects and life-changing social interventions undertaken by GNPC in 2019, the positive feedback received from beneficiaries as well as the projections for 2020.

The two Speakers declared 2020 as “GNPC Year of Projects” which every region in Ghana is expected to benefit from.

Led by the President of the Western Regional House of Chiefs, Ogyeahoho Yaw Gyebi II, the eminent traditional leaders on their part, lauded the Foundation’s efforts and the tremendous impact it has had on communities and people of the Western and Western North Regions through the provision of various projects that include social infrastructure such as classroom blocks, sanitary facilities, potable water, as well as educational scholarships and other livelihood support programmes.

They described the interaction as the best stakeholder engagement they have been a part of.

Pledging their continuous support for GNPC’s business as a national oil operator, the chiefs also took the opportunity to present several requests which would be studied for consideration.

Other members of the GNPC delegation were the Acting Chief Operating Officer, James Yamoah, the General Manager, Legal and HR, Nana Osei Bonsu, Accounting and Reporting Manager, Kwesi Krasi Eyiah, Development &and Reporting Manager, Victor Sun-Attah, Acting Corporate Strategy Manager, Albert Akowuah and Deputy Manager, Accounting and Reporting, Prosper Ahiakonu.