AFRICAPITALISM : How to develop a Corporate Social Responsibility Policy

Disclaimer : I would always refer to Christian content, or more specifically, Bible verses to form a context, or better still, create an emphasis on which the principles of the post I am writing is based on. This is not to deter readers of other faiths. I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas based on your own faiths and ideologies.

You would wonder why  my second #GiveBackSunday post is still on this issue of Corporate Social Responsibility. Click to read Corporate Social Responsibility.

So the question here is:

WHY IS CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY SO IMPORTANT?

In today's Gospel Reading (Matthew 25: 31-46) it was said that on the Final Day, God will separate the sheep and goats. The sheep would be kept on the right side and praised for catering for the people around them and the goats admonished and sent into the eternal fire for refusing to cater to the needs of the people around them.

It's so simple isn't it. It then begs to question why African Companies don't do much of it OR their CSR policies are shrouded in so much mystery.

I had a discussion with a friend of mine, a graphic designer that I am working with to develop a "book cover design" for my book that is  titled "From Clueless to CEO in a Year". 

Any thoughts? Good caption?

He iterated the vast complexities that the Nigerian State and indeed the African continent suffers from and felt that life in developed countries are somewhat better. 

Perfect Analogy. This how most Africans feel that moving to Europe or America would be like.

From experience, and this is entirely my opinion, All countries have their pros and cons. It is easier to leave a fairly comfortable life in the US or UK with a reasonable salary across board. Life becomes considerably harder raising a family as you would probably live your life servicing debt.

But hey!, there's electricity and DisneyLand so it's all good!

In Africa, well in Nigeria specifically, there is that essence of "brotherhood" that I would not trade for anything in the world. The fact that you can visit your cousins and eat their food and stay for an unlimited number of days without being asked when you would leave.

I know how tough it was when I had my "ex" over just for the weekends while I studied in Coventry, United Kingdom.

I bet we can all understand that all countries have their challenges.

Now to the major point....

REAL CHALLENGES IN AFRICA

I was not in any way trying to trivialize the real challenges that we face in Africa. I can begin to enumerate them but I am more solutions-oriented. So I ask this question instead

WHAT ARE AFRICAN COMPANIES DOING ABOUT AFRICA'S CHALLENGES?

As a 2017 Tony Elumelu Entrepreneur, We were introduced to the ideology behind "AFRICAPITALISM" and it is fairly simple in my opinion.

Building African Businesses around solving Africa's Problems.

It is fairly simple especially if you understand that it is only Africans that feel the bane of our "multi-dimensional problems" so we are the ones in the right place to create the solutions.

PS: Searching for funding for your running business or business idea?  Click the link below

http://www.tonyelumelufoundation.org/

DIFFERENT WAYS COMPANIES CAN APPROACH CSR

1. Poverty Allevation

When companies think of CSR, this is the usual go-to. Let's set up a tent somewhere and give polio vaccinations and take pictures of poor African kids.

 I typically detest this because it is not "scalable". It  does not change the conditions of the families in those poor communities. You could essentially be going to the same community every year and nothing changes. This is why I enjoyed when The Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Forum that took place from the 12th of October to the 15th of October was particularly interesting because they brought to Aid Organizations to get them to rethink their "Aid" models.

2. Public Policy Influencing

This are where pressure groups or better still "Think-tanks" come into play. A group of companies set out a chunk of their revenue and build a sound team of people working round the clock to create policies for the government and their MDA's to collaborate on making "Doing Business in Africa" easier as well as create policies that would increase the earning capacity of all Africans thus increasing the GDP per capita in African countries. 

Ory Okolloh and and Kola Aina of Ventures Platform state it very clearly. Don't believe in that Startup Ecosystem bubble and hype in Africa, we cannot simply Entrepreneur ourselves out of Bad Governance and poor policies. We must work with government to be better and to create better working conditions for Africans to thrive.

It's our work o!.. (Hum the response)LOL

That is why I am so happy that the Presidential Enabling Business Environmental Council, has created an app to log complaints of Entrepreneurs where they find it difficult to do business especially with regards to certain MDA's that make things unnecessarily difficult to do business.

Click here to see the app: PEBEC Report App

3. Education and Human Capacity Development

Instead of giving a man a piece of fish, teach him how to fish.

This in my opinion is the strongest means of building the Africa that we all yearn for. Support existing academic institutions to innovate their systems in order to  impact greater values in the population. We can also create impactful programs that would create value for Africans and enable them create more opportunities for other Africans.

We need to create a "ripple effect" of greatness in Africa by adding up the little bits of greatness found in each and everyone of us.

This is why I continue to applaud the work Joshua Shodunke, a Human Capital Development Consultant that is doing a great job at building the next set of  African Entrepreneurs through Education!

Never Forget!. Africans are the only ones that can make Africa Great!

We should never remain the sleeping giant of the world.

Awaken Africa!

This was a really passionate write for me,

I hope I was able to contain my feelings?

I want to hear your thoughts and ideas on this post in the comment section below,

Thanks!

Best regards,

Ejieji Muna

(HubbonNG)