American Business Council Gives over N1.9bn Back to Nigeria as CSR

Rebecca Ejifoma

To contribute its quota to the Nigerian society, where it currently operates, the American Business Council (ABC) has revealed that over 58 US companies in Nigeria has spent over N1.9billion on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects in the country in 2018.

It was a collaborative effort among the ABC, US Embassy, Verraki, KPMG and PwC as mentioned at the recent media launch of the 2019 Nigeria Economic Impact Survey held at the US Embassy in Ikoyi, Lagos.

The data and analysis as shown in the report were based on the responses of over 58 US companies operating in Nigeria who completed the survey.

In the words of the ABC President, Mr. Dipo Faulkner, these US companies spent over N1.9 billion on CSR in Nigeria in 2018 above N1.5 billion up from in 2017.

Among the CSR for 2018, Faulkner listed the five major ones. They are: electrification of 1.2 km road in Ogu community in Rivers State and the construction of a school library in Ogu Government Technical College.

Others are: Cervical Cancer Screening programme in Ile-Ife; a developmental programme which uses chess to improve strategic and critical thinking among secondary school students in Lagos state.

The companies also planted over 1,000 trees to reduce erosion and trained over 250 farmers on better maize and tomatoes growing practices; and developed Centre for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) facilities in Akwa-Ibom.

Speaking also, the CEO, American Business Council, Mrs. Margaret Olele, expressed that the US has increased the ratio of women in her companies in relations to gender equality policy.

“One in five board members are women, 20 per cent of the management team are women, and between 20 and 49 per cent of employees in our companies are women,” she said.

She spoke further that a lot of the foreign companies were also facing a complex regulatory environment but there had been ongoing active engagement with the regulators.

Her words: “Collaborating with the regulators will improve the ease of doing business and unlock a lot of opportunities that US companies could bring to the table.”

The ABC CEO, however, assured Nigeria that US companies were compliant with prompt payment of taxes, as they were aware of the implication of evading such. Many of them would not want to disclose such classified information.”

In the same survey, the Board Member, ABC and Partner, Price Water Coopers, Mr. Andrei Ugarov, said N1.4 trillion revenue was generated in 2018.

While over 66 per cent of these companies identified Nigeria as a regional hub for their operations, over 63.2 per cent of them have local content target, which is reflected in areas such as products, people and supply chain.