Total E&P made another move to create wealth in its host communities by extending loan facilities to Rebisi Port Harcourt women on Tuesday, July 30, 2019, where 50 women entrepreneurs obtained N100,000 each to start or boost their small businesses.
Patrick Idoko, who represented James Urho, the Deputy General Manager (DGM) of Total, said another batch of 50 would also receive their packages if the first batch showed integrity.
He said it was glaring that women repaid loans better than men and that the facility would grow bigger as the women repaid. The women were grouped into five cooperative societies. Some of then said they buy and sell clothes in offices while other run food canteens.
He said Total gets the funds from banks and trains and arranges the women to enable them to handle the funds well and also grow big as entrepreneurs and that credible one could also access loans directly from the banks by accumulating good credit records.
In his address, Urho said Total recognized that access to funds was a big challenge to entrepreneurs and that Rebisi women should no longer be isolated from such benefit.
He said: “Identification and recognition of small and medium entrepreneurs in Rebisi cannot therefore be done in isolation of assisting them to find the required access to credit needed for their businesses as this would also motivate them to continue in their business practices and possibly grow them.”
He observed that micro-credit development is a practice that taps into creative energy of the people to produce economic prosperity for sustainable development by helping the recipients build a business, which can create income and growth. “We hope that by providing this scheme recipients will also be in a position to save and reinvest into their businesses which in turn would ensure steady growth for them”.
He said the scheme is based on a revolving loan structured mechanism, meaning that as they paid back, others would get. That also means that if the first fail to pay back, the next 50 may not get. This growth pattern, he noted, is part of the corporate social responsibility that Total Nigeria has committed to in assisting the areas where they operate.
Speaking for the women, Jane Kalagbor said they had approached Total for assistance and that they were glad that the company saw sense in and it and actualized it. She however asked for bigger amounts to make the effort worthwhile.
The youth leader, Chijioke Peter Mbinye, said their people had not seen this kind of gesture before and described it as a welcome development.
