Solewant Group Raises Bar on CSR, Donates Police Outpost to Boost War against Insecurity

Olusola Adeoye

In its renewed commitment to the welfare of its host communities, Solewant Group has donated a brand-new police outpost, beside Solewant Industrial Park, in Eleme Local Government Area (LGA) of Rivers State as part of its contributions to the security of the oil-producing Niger Delta region.

For more than two decades, Solewant Group, has retained its position as Nigeria’s foremost pipe production, coating and energy sector industrial solutions provider, showcasing technologies to the global oil and gas industry.

The state-of-the-art police outpost was officially inaugurated and donated to the Nigerian Police on Friday, 20th December, 2025.

In his welcome address, while handing over the facility to the Nigeria Police authorities, the Group Chief Executive Officer of Solewant Group, Solomon Ewanehi, said the rise in insecurity in the country, pockets of violence, theft and kidnap incidents witnessed along the road prompted the company to intervene by building and donating the outpost to the police to assist them in their efforts to tackle insecurity in the area.

He noted that crime is a persistent issue, “but we can improve our efforts to prevent and reduce it.”

According to him, Nigeria faces rising crime rates, with statistics showing increased banditry, kidnapping, and robbery.

He cited a report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which revealed 51.89 million crime incidents in Nigerian households from May 2023 to April 2024.

“Given our population, that’s alarming. However, there’s hope. Violence-related deaths dropped from 15,493 in 2022 to 11,794 in 2023. With dedication and resources, we can lower crime rates,” Ewanehi added.

He disclosed that underreporting is a challenge, due to what he called the distrust of law enforcement.

“Not all officers are the same; many are dedicated and inspire us to address crime positively. Our collaboration with the Police Force has been smooth, leading to today’s event,” he added.

Ewanehi noted that his company has brought law enforcement closer to the community, to promote peace, security, and rapid response.

“Solewant Group constructed this police outpost to enhance security and support our community. We’ll continue to assist the Police Force and encourage community involvement. We can create low-crime communities like Iceland, Denmark, and Japan,” he added.

Speaking on the security situation in the company’s host community, Ewanehi explained that “our workforce and those that drive into Onne have in one way or the other witnessed a number of issues along this road and its environs.

“This challenging issue at one point even led us to have a situation where we experienced gunshots on our fleet of vehicles of workers that were going back home. A number of things happened to us with respect to some persons jumping into the bush and trying to hide because of one or two things.

“Within three months, we witnessed eight attacks within our industrial park and this led to a lot of cost that we experienced as a result of theft, crime and the like. And this is not peculiar to us,” Ewanehi explained.

He further revealed that “Solewant Group decided to move our symbiotic relationship with the Nigerian Police to the next step by constructing this police outpost that we have here today.

“What we have here is a furnished police outpost with complete water system, generating power set, complete inverter with a solar panel to go with, to ensure that they are able to combat crime and assist us to move and work seamlessly along the route and also within the community where we operate,” he added.

Speaking shortly after inspecting the police outpost, the Area Commander, Eleme Area Command, ACP Opayemi Olufunke, on behalf of the Rivers State Police Commissioner, CP Olugbenga Adepoju, thanked Solewant Group for building and donating the facility to the Nigerian Police and urged other companies to emulate the gesture.

She said the outpost would help boost security in the Alode community and surroundings, and also deepen the cordial relationship between the company, the police and the community whose morale and confidence she said would be boosted by the gesture.

“It’s a good one and I want to thank the GMD/CEO of Solewant Group for what he has just done and we also advise others to key in. This will help reduce the insecurity we’re having in this area,” she said.

Also speaking, the Youth President of Alode community, Comrade Dickson Igwe, also lauded Solewant Group for its benevolence to his people, especially in ensuring the security of the host Alode community and its environs.

Established 25 years ago, Solewant Group has impacted positively on its host communities and delivered over 100 high-impact projects to international oil companies (IOCs) and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) companies, including the manufacturing of steel pipes, anti- corrosion and mechanical protection on steel pipes, protection of pipeline field joints, and fabrication of pipes, making the company a leading African provider of coated steel pipes to oil and gas industries.

The company’s state-of-the-art industrial park is Africa’s largest-pipe coating facility, spanning 156,000 square meters in Alode.

Earlier this year, the company inaugurated an ultra-modern Pipe Bend Multi-Layer Pipe Coating Plant at the facility.

The company’s team of innovators and engineers, in partnership with Euro-American OEMs, developed and built the state-of-the-art Pipe Bend Coating Plant.

The facility is designed to handle high-volume manufacturing of steel pipes and coating products, fabrication and coating application solutions —fusion bonded epoxy (FBE), three-layer polyethylene (3LPE), and 3-to-5-layer polypropylene (5LPP) to concrete weight coating systems, field joint systems, insulation, Cathodic protection (CP) systems and Energy training solutions.

Equipped with world-class Euro American technologies, from the company’s Dutch partners, KEMA Coatings (Canada), Raychem RPG of Indian, CANUSA CPS of Canada, the facility is a game changer in the federal government’s efforts to make Nigeria the hub of steel pipe manufacturing in Africa.

The modern pipe bend coating plant provides reliable multi-layer coating protection on non-linear steel pipe structures, including but not limited to, Buckle arrestors, Pipe Bends, Pipeline Field Joints, short run pipeline, pipeline spools, pipeline Risers, pipeline Tie ins, Tie backs, among others, in accordance with the current ISO Standards.

Other facilities within Solewant Group’s industrial park include concrete weight coating plant, steel pipe manufacturing and metal fabrication facility, pipe storage and preservation area, and laboratory.

The company has significantly contributed to Nigeria’s local content development by establishing Africa’s largest pipe coating plant, capable of providing three working shifts during production.

This reduces reliance on imports and handling diverse and enhances in-country capacity.

By offering world-class pipeline coating solutions and now providing multi-layer coating systems on non- linear steel structures that comply with ISO 2016, the company has bolstered Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves and contributed to the nation’s industrial growth.

To compete globally, the company focused on innovation, adherence to international standard organisation (ISO) specifications, by adopting cutting-edge solutions, such as automation of our factories, establishment of multi- layer coating protection of linear and nonlinear pipeline technologies, which cater to the specific demands of Africa’s oil and gas environment.

Today, Solewant Group operates diversified portfolios, namely – Solewant Nigeria Limited, Pipe and Metals Industries Limited, Field Joint Coating Limited, Solewant Specialty Protective Coatings and Paints Limited, as well as Solewant Energy Training Institute (SETI).

The company’s growing reputation has led to a surge in contracts from key players like SPDC (now Renaissance Africa), SNEPCO, Chevron, NLNG, ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies, First E&P, OANDO, NGIC, and other clients.

The company also hosts an annual energy summit, which attracts policymakers, energy executives, financiers, development partners, and researchers from across Africa and the rest of the world.

This year’s summit, the 9th in the series, took place from November 27–28, 2025, at the Solewant Industrial Park, Alode-Onne.

Themed: “Emerging Technologies and the Future of Sustainable Energy Development in Africa,” the 2025 summit focused on how transformative technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics, automation, data analytics, and other digital innovations are redefining the frontiers of Africa’s energy transition.

At a time when the world demanded more sustainable and efficient energy systems, the company responded with innovation, integrity, and impact.

…..Adeoye writes from Lagos