The Nation Newspaper

Tag: CSR

  • CSR vital to business, says Etisalat

    CSR vital to business, says Etisalat

    Etisalat Nigeria has emphasised the importance of sustainability and integration of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices in business.

    The firm expressed this position at the recent CSR Master class organised by the Etisalat CSR Centre of the Lagos Business School, Pan-African University.

    In a statement, it said the Master class was designed to address emerging trends in sustainability, stakeholder engagement, and shared value, the future direction of CSR in Nigeria, confronting risks and creating opportunities through responsible management of the supply chain, among others.

    According to the Director, Brands and Communications, Etisalat, Enitan Denloye, “At Etisalat, Corporate Social Responsibility means creating value through sustainable products and services, minimising its environmental impact and striking a balance between contributing to the well-being of the society and meeting the expectations of our stakeholders”.

    He explained that Etisalat’s external CSR strategy is a two-pronged integrated approach, which he described as top-down and bottom-up.

     

     

     

    “This approach empowers various socio-economic levels, and ensures development and sustainability,” he said.

    “At the top, business leaders, policy and decision makers are trained on the significance of CSR best practices to enable them become genuine influencers and positively impact on those at the lower socio-economic levels.”

    Citing the creation of the Etisalat CSR Centre at the Lagos Business School as a major component of the company’s top-down approach, he said: “Many organizations tend to neglect the top-down approach to CSR practice. However, there’s a lot of research and knowledge on CSR to be harnessed, which is why we are partnering with the Lagos Business School to research more into CSR, hold seminars, courses, and international conferences and ensure that CSR modules are integrated into the MBA curriculum. The Etisalat CSR Centre focuses on the creation, dissemination and application of CSR knowledge.”

    He continued “at Etisalat Nigeria, we firmly believe that we have a responsibility to stakeholders whom we depend on for the survival and growth of our business. We are committed to being sustainable and thriving in the future; while facilitating the sustainable development of our host communities. And so we pledge to continue providing socially responsible products and services”.

    Denloye affirmed that that the telco is determined to maintain sustainable growth through its projects in the areas of Education, Health and the Environment, and continually engage all stakeholders in meaningful dialogue; with a view to making sustained economic, environmental and social impact on Nigeria.

     

  • Better days coming, firm tells customers

    NEWpower firm, the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC) has said it is doing everything possible to meet customers’ needs.

    It promised them better service delivery in the days ahead, saying it is in continuous engagement with its Korean technical partners to ensure seamless and equitable distribution of power across its network.

    The firm made the pledge during a meeting with customers as part of its Corporate Social Resposibility (CSR) and sensitisation campaign.

    Commending them for their support, the General Manager, Customer Service, Olori Olubukola Osiberu, said IKEDC remained committed to delivering world-class service with the support of its technical partners and its customers.

    He said to the CSR was designed to provide a platform for IKEDC to interact with the public to create better understanding of its activities as well as the rights and the responsibilities of the consumers.

    She explained that distribution companies are at the end of the energy value chain and can only distribute the power generated and transmitted by GENCOS and TRANCOS. She urged customers to show more understanding and take advantage of IKEDC flyers containing contacts of its principal officers to make complaints and contributions that will move the sector forward.

    She stressed that gas shortage, vandalism, sabotage and energy theft as key challenges bedevilling the process of power supply in the nation. “The challenge of inadequate gas supply is huge and what we have been getting as DISCOS has reduced drastically. We are also faced with the challenge of vandals destroying our facilities and installations. However, we are committed to ensuring equitable distribution of available power to our customers at all times,” she said.

    A representative of Ikeja Local Government Chairman, Yomi Afolabi, commended IKEDC for organising a platform for customers to present their complaints. He urged the company to provide customer service points for easy access to the company and overhaul its metering system to eradicate estimated billing.

    “I am appealing to all residents in Ikeja and its environs to be patient with the new investors and owners of IKEDC as they continue to work towards meeting our need for uninterrupted supply in the nearest future,” he added.

    Discussions at the meeting centred on power outages, estimated billing, extortion and absence of pre-paid meters and Osiberu agreed with that the power sector requires an overhaul of existing infrastructure, investment in new technology and capacity building to enable the nation move to a position of uninterrupted power supply.

    She also urged customers to play their roles as stakeholders in the power sector by reporting cases of vandalism and extortion to relevant authorities as well as ensuring prompt payment of their bills.

     

  • STI hosts Fifth Table Tennis tourney

    STI hosts Fifth Table Tennis tourney

    SOvereign Trust Insurance (STI) Plc has hosted its Fifth Annual Ikoyi Club 1938 Table Tennis competition for members and their spouses.

    The three-day competition had members compete for laurels in the various categories.

    The event held at the Table Tennis Section of the Ikoyi Club1938.

    Chairman, Table Tennis Section of Ikoyi Club 1938, Otunba Femi Oduntan, thanked the management of STI for its support, appealing to other corporate organisations to emulate its gesture.

    He said: “The least that any corporate organisation can do is to be socially responsible by contributing the little they can to the development of their immediate community and the nation at large.

    “Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc has consistently shown its commitment to the promotion of sports and the development of young talents to further enhance the human capacity in the sports industry”.

    STI’s Head, Corporate Communications and Brand Management, Mr. Segun Bankole, said his firm would continue to support the promotion and development of sports, adding that it is one of the key elements in the firm’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) .

    He said the CSR policy of the firm recognises sports as an integral factor in achieving a healthy society and contributing to its advancement.

  • Unilever showcases CSR

    Unilever showcases CSR

    The idea of doing good is one of the ideals which many existing companies today believe in. Unilever Nigeria Plc, for instance, holds the view and very strongly too that one way to do well is by doing good, and with the realisation that two billion people globally uses its products, it believes no stone should be left unturned in its efforts to impact on the world, and for its branch in Nigeria, all hands must be on deck to ensure this comes to fruition.

    The need for corporate social responsibility, according to the Managing Director of Unilever, Mr. Thabo Mabe, is because they cannot afford to be just a company that makes products and sells them at a profit, but rather see the wide reach of their products as an opportunity for them to be a force for good in the society.

    Mabe said the company is mindful of the changes the planet is undergoing as well as the unprecedented challenges being faced by people each day as presently, one billion people go to bed hungry everyday just as over 200 million people are presently unemployed world over.

    Besides, over 2.6 billion people have no access to modern sanitation and two million children under five years old die every year from diarrhoea and pneumonia, just as the world grapples with increasing world population, climate change and water scarcity.

    One way the Unilever as been able to contribute its quota to the development to the society is through the Unilever CSR/Sustainability Day, a platform which enables it along with its partners, gather together to not just review progress and present to the public the impact they have collectively done but think through more ingenious ways to make the society safer for all.

    According to Mabe, the company initiated the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan (USLP) in 2010, a blue print to help achieve the vision to double the size of their business whilst reducing their environmental footprint and increasing their positive social impact.

    Through the USLP, Mabe said, Unilever set out to achieve three big goals by 2020 and they are, “to help more than a billion people take action to improve their health and well-being, to source 100 per cent of our agricultural raw materials sustainably and enhance the livelihoods of people across our value chain and lastly to halve the environmental footprint of our products across the value chain.”

    The global partners are UNICEF, Save the Children, World Food Programme, Population Services International and Oxfam.

    UNICEF, according to its representative, Mr Patrick Osuocha, has been working in Sokoto and Ogun states to help improve access to basic sanitation.

    Appraising the progress made, Mabe said “three years into our 10 year commitment, we are happy to report that working with our global partners around the world, we have made solid progress in some of the key areas we set out to change.”

     

  • Shell assists old people

    Shell assists old people

    Shell Nigeria Exploration and Productivity Company (SNEPCO), a subsidiary of Shell Petroleum has renovated a part of the Old People’s Home, Yaba, Lagos.

    The company said the project was aimed at lifting the wellbeing of the old occupants of the home.

    At the organisation’s end-of-year party held within the premises, the firm’s Managing Director, Chike Onebekwe, said the company donated a 30KVA generator to the home last year. The renovated six-room block was handed over to managers of the home.

    Onebekwe said: “We identify with children and senior citizens as part of our social investments portfolio which cuts across health, education and social services. Recently, SNEPCO identified with children with special needs at Modupe Cole Memorial Childcare, Lagos by expanding and equipping its physiotherapy unit. Also, we were there last year for the end-of-year party.”

    The Director, Social Welfare Department, Office of Youth and Social Development in Lagos State, Musbau Abdulahi, commended the organisation and urged other corporate organisations to emulate its CSR gesture.

  • Firm to assist banks, others on CSR

    RyteDeals Nigeria Limited has introduced a product to help banks, microfinance banks (MfBs), mortgage institutions and manufacturing companies to improve on their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

    Tagged ‘Dial-a-Deal programme, the idea, according to a statement, will help companies to make maximum use of their CSR’s budget.

    The Chief Executive Officer, RyteDeals, Mr Victor Alaofin, said the firm was committed to helping institutions get a fair deal or value for their CSR’s materials.

    He said the development was aimed at helping companies spend less on CSR, while at the same time getting more values for their efforts.

    The RyteDeals boss said the firm would help institutions to get discount on CSR’s items such as gadgets, food, electronics, clothing’s, medical services, trainings, events, accessories, cars among others.

    He said: ‘The company is value-driven, has a wide range of ideas and is structured to serve its customers better. One of these ideas is “dial-a-deal”, through which customers can dial a phone number to get ‘enhanced, convenience service’. Also, business owners equally have opportunity to get the “Ryte customers, market recognition and reach for their products and services.”

    He said the firm carries out deals online by asking clients to subscribe to its products, adding that the company has wider reach, as evident by its long list of individuals and companies that have requested for CSR-induced services.

     

  • UAC’s CSR projects

    UAC of Nigeria Plc (UAC) has inaugurated its Goodness League projects in the Northcentral Zone of the country, pledging to spread them to all the zones in the country.

    According to a statement, the Goodness League is a veritable platform for UAC’s meaningful and credible intervention schemes that tackle social problems and provide an umbrella and synergy for all the Company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities.

    The programme’s focus is education and it intervenes through the provision of infrastructural assistance, such as comprehensive renovation of school blocks and the provision of science equipment, computers and desks to needy schools.

    The programme also supports the educational sector through the Free Weekend Classes for Senior Secondary Schools – a volunteer scheme that focuses on mentoring, coaching and counselling and has been successfully implemented in Lagos State.

    Beneficiaries of the projects in the Northcentral zone are Boys Secondary School, Gindiri, Plateau State; Government College, Keffi, Nasarawa State; Mount St Gabriel’s Secondary School, Makurdi, Benue State and Government College, Bida, Niger State.

     

  • CSR: MTN empowers young entrepreneurs

    Adetola Adebowale has won the inaugural MTN Business Grant Competition.

    At the award and prize presentation, held recently at the Banquet Hall of Oriental Hotel, Lekki, the graduate of the University of Lagos and Fate Foundation’s Aspiring Entrepreneurship Programme Batch 34, was unveiled along with two other runners-up which include the Titus Igwe twins and Terseer Ugbor.

    The winner was presented with an entrepreneurship financial grant of N20 million while the runners-up received N5 million each.

    The competition is an entrepreneurship aid aimed at helping bright Nigerian youths, who have developed satisfactory business plans and are willing to pursue them. The competition is the latest innovation and addition to the MTN Leadership Summit which, over the years, has given Nigerian youths the platform to develop and drive their visions.

    According to Imamoke Ogoro, Senior Manager, Master Brand, MTN, ‘the strategy of the summit is to act as a platform for networking. Aside that, it became imperative not just to bring people together to get excited and motivated after a series of motivational talks but to help bring their dreams alive’.

    She added that, because MTN has always striven to give Nigerians the opportunity to live the richer life, the introduction of the Business Grant Competition, to give financial assistance to the best among the nation’s budding entrepreneurs become necessary.

    At outset, Wale Adeniranye, one of the panelists, said, over 2000 business plans were received. These plans were pruned to 40 per region from where they were screened for the final 12 entries. It was from among these final entries that the eventual winner, Adetola Adebowale, emerged for his business plan for Wapa Apparel, a fashion consultancy and garment manufacturing outfit; alongside the two runners-up.

  • ‘Why PIB must address community interests’

    The inclusion of interests of oil producing communities has been identified as one the best provisions in the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), now before the National Assembly.

    An industry stakeholder said part of the problems oil companies face in the oil producing areas is the weakness of laws defining rights to property by the oil and gas producing communities.

    President/Chief Executive, Swamp Blue Pearl, Kuromiema Amiabiye, who spoke at a forum in Lagos, said the communities are underserved in capacity building opportunities by the industry and governments including the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) and the international oil companies (IOCs) especially in the areas of corporate social responsibility (CSR), job training and education scholarship programmes.

    He added that host communities witness a lot of discriminations by government’s agencies and business operators at all levels.

    He said the PIB when passed into law should be able to address all the community concerns and associated discontentment for smooth and profitable business operating environment in the industry. This development will ensure sustainable social and economic stability and integration of the nation.

    He also said communities are constantly at war with management and authorities over access to information and orchestrated impediments in recruitment, contracts and business opportunities in view of the fact that the oil and gas resources are derived from their land.

    He said: “Preference for beneficiaries are induced by ethnic/sectional considerations and political patronage that favour migrants into the communities and region; and political protégés whose benefactors are ‘outside operator’ of the industry and/or political godfathers, who control the levers of power and decision processes with respect to recruitment, contracting, business opportunities, among others.”

    He expressed disappointment that after 50 years of oil and gas exploitation, social infrastructure and amenities are still absent in the Niger Delta region.

    Government and corporate instruments for management of the benefits in the region face serious abuses, corruption and run on sponsorship.

    He said operators use all sorts of schemes to evade corporate governance rules to ensure that management of benefits goes their way.

    He said: “Within governments however, patronage and fraud remain the norm. Huge resource such as funds designated for community development through Niger Delta Development Corporation (NDDC), Ministry of the Niger Delta Area and the statutory 13 per cent derivation revenue, states/local government allocation targeted at communities, all show no visible impact on the physical and social landscape, or human development conditions of communities,” adding that even when provided, they are carted away with impunity.