The pan African bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc. has agreed a contractor support fund of $200 million with Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) to boost the financial capacity of its vendors and suppliers. With the UBA contract, SPDC’s total contractor support fund has hit $2.4 billion.
SPDC’s Director and General Manager, Government and Business Relations, Bashir Bello, who signed the $200 million Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the United Bank for Africa (UBA) in Abuja recently, described the initiative as a product of the continuous effort by SPDC and its joint venture partners – NNPC, Total and Agip – to enhance Nigerian content and local participation in the nation’s oil and gas value chain.
The fund provides support for contractors to finance projects executed for Shell companies in Nigeria in line with the aspirations of the Nigerian Content Act. To access the fund, the contractors must have a valid purchase order and meet the bank’s risk assessment criteria.
“Findings indicate that lack of access to capital hinders many Nigerian companies from competing for and executing contracts effectively” said Bello who signed the deal on behalf of SPDC. This funding will enable us to achieve our community content ambition of increasing participation of host communities in the SPDC value chain,” he added.
Also, the General Manager Energy Bank of UBA, Ebele Ogbue, said; “The bank is committed to providing support to Nigerian companies through its partnership with SPDC JV.”
Ogbue, who signed the MoU for UBA, commended the national and community content efforts of Shell companies in Nigeria, he noted that; “UBA is ready to provide the needed financial backing that will empower Nigerian companies to play more active role in the country’s energy sector and beyond.”
It is interesting to know that the Shell Contractor Funding Scheme started in 2011 with the Shell Kobo Fund, which gave rise to the Shell Contractor Support Fund in 2012. The scheme has been redesigned to address the current economic exigencies and to align it with stakeholder needs by merging the two initial initiatives. In 2016, Shell signed a $2.2 billion MoU with seven Nigerian banks that have since then disbursed around $1.5 billion loans to about 372 small and medium-sized Nigerian suppliers and vendors in the oil and gas industry.
