Corporate philanthropy in Nigeria and globally has become important to socio– economic development in the last two decades. Governments, consumers, media and many others have come to expect philanthropy, Corporate Social Responsibility or Sustainable development activities from businesses especially those who operate out of developing countries in Africa.
There are many shapes and forms of Corporate philanthropy, some are purely philanthropic in nature and aid related, while others are more strategic in nature aligning business objectives to the act of development and giving back to the society. The later has become more prominent as many businesses seek to increase new routes to market and also increase their license to operate.
It is important, however, to note that corporate philanthropy does not take away the need to behave ethically and ensure adequate consumer satisfaction – in fact these are intrinsically one and part of the entire scope of giving back to one’s operating environment.
Socio-economic status of Nigeria.
Nigeria has been a major benefactor in the Africa Arising narrative. The rate at which Africa is developing, Nigeria specifically, has not kept pace with the rest of the world. The United Nations, Millennium Development goals had been put in place to help drive development in specific areas of focus, while tremendous progress has been made, Nigeria and the African region is still plagued with a high incident of poverty and inequality. The slump in national revenue arising from the crash in commodity trade and prices of oil globally has also affected Nigerian development, clawing back on years of socio-economic gain. The realities on ground shows that Nigerians are suffering and there is, therefore, an urgent need for diversified efforts to develop non-oil revenue. Numerous efforts are also being made to build capacity at the base of the pyramid with poor people across sectors in order to eradicate or grossly minimize poverty and reduce inequality. This is an area where a number of corporate organisations have set up Foundations in other to assist the government in empowering Nigerians and consequently building a secure operating environment.
Large Corporates such as Dangote group, Honeywell, First Bank, Access Bank, Unilever Nigeria, Nestle Nigeria Plc., Olam, British American Tobacco Nigeria, UBA have established Corporate Philanthropy strategies. These strategies are mostly targeted at building poor people’s capacity across different sectors such as Agriculture, retail, education, health and many much more.
