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At a period when most organisations find it difficult living out their commitment to corporate social responsibilities -thanks to the current economic financial crisis fanning across the globe - not many people would believe there are still other corporate entities which will take corporate citizenship very seriously.
Re-visiting the event that took place at the premises of ExxonMobil's corporate office on Victoria Island last Friday will, no doubt, stretch the imaginations of many.
Not only has the occasion been described as a demonstration of true commitment to corporate citizenship, but also as an audacious step towards the fulfilment of a promise.
And so, in line with its commitment to support educational development as well as training of medium and high level manpower, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited (EEPNL) in Production Sharing Contract with Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)


brought to the fore what observers portrayed as a corporate social responsibility drive at work, when 10 Nigerian graduates were offered postgraduate scholarships to study abroad.
The initiative, which aimed principally at inspiring brilliant minds to greater heights, saw nine males and a female received their scholarship awards covering for tuition, accommodation, living expenses, books, air fares and other related academic expenses for the duration of the programme.
Explaining the gamut of the award package to newsmen, the country manager, public affairs for ExxonMobil affiliates in Nigeria, Gloria E.Essien-Danner, said the move was part of the company's commitment corporate citizenship, noting that it also described who they were and how their business success.
"At ExxonMobil, we take our commitment to corporate citizenship very seriously. We place a high premium on education, particularly in the field of science and technology which remains the core of our business as well as youth development and empowerment programme and infrastructural development in the area of education", she stated.
Sharing further insights on the company's scholarship awards initiative, Essien-Danner disclosed that besides its scholarship programme awards for both undergraduates in tertiary institutions and international postgraduates, that EEPNL as one of the upstream affiliate companies of ExxonMobil in Nigeria, has awarded a total of 56international postgraduate scholarships as at 2008, adding that 20 out of the number have been employed by it.
In addition, she revealed that in 2007, EEPNL introduced the national postgraduate programme in other to complement the existing foreign ones, noting that candidates must have a first degree (First Class or Second Class Upper in Geosciences and engineering as a prerequisite.
On this year's international postgraduate scholarship which is over $40,000 per student, she explained that many applications received, only 285 candidates were shortlisted and invited for aptitude test, while only 48 made it to the interview stage, stressing that the entire selection process, albeit rigorous, was transparent and competitive.
Congratulating the 10 awardees, the public affairs manager, together with the executive director of Deep Water Exploration, Ayo Vaughan, enjoined them to be of good demeanour and carry the emblem of the company as its ambassador, describing their achievement as hard-earned.
On their part, the awardees who spoke to BusinessDay did not only pay glowing tributes to the company, but pledged their unalloyed commitment to the company, promising to work for their benefactor upon completion of their programmes.
While nine of the awardees will be studying at different universities in the UK for one year duration, among which include: Imperial College, London; Universities of Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and Cranfield, the only female among them (Ogunbanwo Olufoluke)a graduate of University of Lagos, would be heading for Stanford University in the United States of America for two-year period.