NNPC/Seplat JV Graduates First Cohort of 127 Teachers in Imo Under STEP Programme

The NNPC/Seplat Energy Joint Venture (JV) has graduated its first cohort of teachers in Imo State under the Seplat Teachers Empowerment Programme (STEP), equipping 127 teachers and education evaluators with digital skills, STEAM-focused teaching techniques, and alternative income-generation skills aimed at strengthening their professional development and economic resilience.

The maiden Imo State edition of the programme brought together teachers from communities across the state for an intensive, three-month training exercise designed to extend well beyond conventional classroom instruction. Participants received practical training in digital learning, communications, entrepreneurship, and broader skills development, all with a focus on empowering them to apply what they learned both in their classrooms and within their wider communities.

Speaking at the graduation ceremony held in Owerri on Sunday, Seplat Energy Plc's Director of External Affairs and Social Performance, Chioma Afe, represented by the General Manager for Corporate Social Investment and Social Performance, Esther Icha, said the investment in teachers was driven by the belief that empowering educators remains one of the most effective ways to create lasting impact within host communities. She explained that STEP was specifically designed to strengthen teachers' professional development while also making them more economically resourceful, with the ultimate goal of generating sustainable impact in schools and communities long after the training itself concludes.

Also speaking at the event, the Chief Upstream Investment Officer at NNPC Upstream Investment Management Services (NUIMS), Olanrewaju Igandan, represented by Subsurface Operations Adviser, Chizoba Onyike, described teachers as critical channels for knowledge transfer to younger generations. He thanked the various stakeholders who contributed to the programme's success and wished the graduating teachers well in their future endeavours.

Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State, represented at the ceremony by the state's Commissioner for Education, Professor Bertram Ikegwuoha, urged the beneficiaries to use the skills they had acquired to positively influence their students going forward. Uzodimma thanked Seplat and NNPC for bringing the initiative to Imo State and encouraged the newly graduated teachers to embody the programme's guiding motto: "Teach. Inspire. Transform."

The graduation ceremony also featured a business idea competition among the beneficiaries, designed to showcase the entrepreneurial and income-generation skills participants had picked up over the course of the programme. Mrs Choice Nwachukwu emerged as the overall winner after presenting a business concept centred on antiseptic production, scoring 432 points and receiving a grant of N500,000. Mr Obinna Anele placed second with a concept focused on unripe plantain flour production, scoring 425 points and receiving a N300,000 grant, while Ms Golden Ezekwe rounded out the top three placements with a separate business concept.

Among the graduating cohort, co-best graduating teacher Onuoha Success expressed appreciation to the NNPC/Seplat JV for the opportunity, saying the programme had impacted him both professionally and personally. He encouraged the joint venture to sustain the initiative in Imo State going forward, given the tangible benefits participants had derived from the training.

The Imo State cohort forms part of a broader, multi-state rollout of the STEP programme by the NNPC/Seplat Energy Joint Venture, which has previously run similar teacher empowerment cohorts in other parts of the country. Earlier this year, the joint venture graduated 623 teachers and education inspectors in Edo and Delta States under the same programme, at a ceremony held in Benin City, reflecting a sustained, multi-year investment in improving classroom standards across the JV's areas of operation.

Beyond STEP, the NNPC/Seplat JV has also maintained other community-focused corporate social investment initiatives, including its "Eye Can See" programme, which has screened more than 23,000 optical cases, conducted nearly 800 surgeries, and distributed over 13,000 eyeglasses at no cost to beneficiaries, alongside the commissioning of dedicated Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) laboratories in select secondary schools.

Taken together, the STEP programme reflects the NNPC/Seplat Energy JV's broader commitment to education, skills development, and sustainable community impact across its operational areas. By equipping teachers with relevant digital, pedagogical, and entrepreneurial skills, the initiative aims to strengthen educators while positioning them as catalysts for change within their schools and communities, part of a wider pattern of oil and gas joint ventures in Nigeria increasingly channelling corporate social investment into education and human capital development within their host states.