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FirstBank Partners LBS on Sustainable Education, Highlights Opportunities in Oil Sector

In an effort to build capacity and promote best practices in sustainable education in Nigeria, First Bank of Nigeria Limited has partnered with Lagos Business School (LBS) through its sustainability programme, First Bank Sustainability Centre, to host a workshop for non-governmental and corporate organisations.

The workshop, which is scheduled to hold at the Lagos Business School on February 24 and 25, 2015, Lagos, has been designed to develop business partnerships between NGOs and corporate organisations to achieve widespread and lasting change in the business environment, according to the leading financial brand’s statement.

The FirstBank’s spokesperson, Mrs. Folake Ani-Mumuney, said, “FirstBank is a responsible corporate citizen and will continue to foster partnerships that build sustainable businesses. We put our customers at the heart of our business as part of our ‘You First’ ideal to drive sustainable finance, empower the citizenry and grow the economy.”

The bank said the workshop would also provide capacity-building training for the NGOs wishing to partner corporate organisations on their sustainability programmes.

According to her, the sustainability workshop for the NGOs and corporations is a CSR initiative of the FirstBank Sustainability Centre, established in collaboration with the LBS to create, disseminate and apply knowledge.

In another ‘You First’ positioning initiative, the Head of Energy and Natural Resources at FBN Capital, Rolake Akinkugbe, stated that there is apparent potential for sustainable oil exploration and production in Nigeria and other West African countries over a significant period of time.

She said this in her presentation at the Sixth Annual West Africa Trade & Export Finance Conference organised by the Global Trade Review magazine held recently in Lagos.

While noting that West Africa accounted for one-third of the world’s new oil discoveries especially Nigeria’s Niger Delta basin and the Gulf of Guinea, Akinkugbe said, “In spite of the challenges currently being faced within the sub-Saharan African oil and gas sector today with production of shale oil in the world market, the reduction of oil imports from Nigeria by the USA and the global drop in crude oil prices, there appears to be hope on the horizon for sub-Saharan African producers,” she said.

She highlighted the fact that the rate of decline of the shale oil wells at 60 per cent to 90 per cent in about 35 months compared to that of conventional oil wells which is around 5 per cent means the latter will be more sustainable over the years. According to her, the US geological survey on the region puts the estimated projection at 3.2 billion barrels of oil.

“There are challenges which are currently being experienced from the difficulty in attracting capital at reasonable costs to fund oil and gas infrastructure projects, to the cost of exploration and development of existing properties. It is anticipated that these challenges may scuttle the opportunities for growth if not addressed,” Akinkugbe said.