WACT-APM Terminals Nigeria Signs MoA With Host Community

WACT-APM Terminals Nigeria has recently signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with one of its host communities, Onne, Eleme LGA, Rivers State to solidify its long-standing partnership.

The signing of this agreement underscores the unwavering commitment of WACT-APM Terminals Nigeria to foster sustainable development and cooperation in the community in which it operates.

Speaking at the event to mark the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement, the Managing Director, WACT-APM Terminals Nigeria, Jeethu Jose described the MoA as evolving and also stated that the MoA establishes a structured framework for collaboration on key initiatives, ensuring that the needs of the communities are addressed as agreed.

Jose further highlighted a few community initiatives which includes the donation of solar power to the Primary health care facility in the host community, a revamped scholarship program that ensures no eligible and deserving student is denied access to quality education from next year.

The Community Relations Manager, WACT-APM Terminals Nigeria, Justin Okwuofu addressed the audience on the MoA process between WACT and the community. He described the journey as participatory development and further encouraged the community to continue to support the company in carrying out future development initiatives.

“We started the process in 2022 by having a capacity building workshop for some members of the community to understand the process of drafting an MoU or MoA. And the reason we do this is because over time, we’ve seen a lot of companies that impose MoU’s on communities and because of lack of knowledge, the communities could sign without actually understanding what MoU means. But for each process, we had a series of meetings discussing this MoU, and today, we are signing it. The process was a rigorous exercise, and to show that what we promote is what we call participatory development, we had to carry everybody along.”

Community leaders expressed optimism about the new agreement and encouraged the company to continue to support the community.

Also speaking, the Community Development Committee Chairman, Chief Sunday Dudu described the event as the first of its kind and appreciated WACT for what he termed, ‘setting the pace.’

“Today is one of the days we have been expecting, the day that is going to be remarked in the history of Onne because what we get to observe here today has never happened in past years ago. We quite appreciate it, because at the end of the day, everybody will go home with the sense of having a working document that presents what is going to happen. Whatever we are going to do here today is going to be the landmark to which we set the ball rolling and to be emulated by other investors in Onne,” he said.