22 June 2012, Sweetcrude, Abuja, Nigeria – Total has signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with three Universities namely the African University of Science & Technology (AUST), Abuja, the Lagos Business School (LBS) and the University of Port-Harcourt (UNIPORT).
The company said this is in line with its corporate philosophy of integrating societal issues with business.
While speaking on the initiative, the Executive General Manager, Corporate Services, Mr. Vincent Nnadi remarked that “the MoUs are part of the company`s Corporate Social Responsibility. They cover mutual co-operation with the Universities in the following areas:
• University – Industry Co-operation on teaching using the Total Professors Associates (TPA) as a tool to deploy qualified serving or retired staff to teach specified subjects in the Universities’ areas of needs;
• Participation in Courses, Seminars, Total Summer School, Internships, Research, Education fora and fairs, etc;
• Educational Support and funding (Scholarships & Bursaries); and
• Development of Educational facilities. The benefits of the partnerships include exposure of the institutions to industry and international experts and networks, developing the competencies of our employees, contribution to local content development, etc”
“Total believes in partnership that works”, says the Managing Director/Chief Executive of Total Upstream Companies in Nigeria, Mr. Guy Maurice, who has inaugurated steering committees to actualize the project. Executive Director, Corporate GSR & Business, Dr Kingsley Ojoh leads the Steering Committees. The Universities also have three members each on the Steering Committees along with representatives of Total Downstream. The steering Committees were inaugurated on June 11, 2012 for AUST, June 12, for the Lagos Business School, and June 13, 2012 for the University of Port Harcourt.
