Corporate Social Investments: A Gold Mine for Councils?

Corporate social investments are the concrete result of the principle of corporate social responsibility which has become a catch phrase for companies of recent, both national and multinational. From telecommunication companies through the petroleum sector, banks and micro- financial institutions, to food processing companies, no one is left out. What is corporate social responsibility and who does what in this guise? How do or can councils benefit from corporate social responsibility? In the following paper, we attempt an answer.

An information technology centre here, book donations there, a well to a community here, bridges built in a neighbourhood there, community assembly, worship and sports grounds, all bearing the conspicuous stamp of a given corporation and done with the most intense publicity, and these to the greatest satisfaction of a mayor here or there, since these corporations’ social investments fall in line with the council’s mission. According to some authors, corporate social responsibility can be understood to include “actions of companies that address social and environmental concerns beyond what is required by law”. Being outside legal requirements therefore, corporate social investments depend solely on the will of the corporation.

However, although to the casual observer, “gifts” from corporations may be the fruits of charity, there is more to it than meets the eye. Companies that invest socially reap the benefits of being perceived as environmentally compliant, besides creating an opportunity for advertisement and promotional sales, and enjoy the sympathy of the population targeted in their investments. As a result, there is a tendency for the communication departments of these companies to report or claim more than the real benefits of such actions, a tendency described as “green-washing”.

To Tene Thierry, of the Institut Africain de CSR, speaking recently in Yaounde to reporters, “Corporate Social Responsibility encompasses not only what companies do with their profits, but how they make them as well”. Consequently, governments need to look into the way these corporations first make the profits they reinvest socially. Hence the dilemma: while others see regulation of corporate social responsibility as anathema, and call for entirely voluntary standardisation like the ISO26000 Standard, others,  think there must be some form of regulation of investments.

Who does what in the guise of corporate social investments with benefits to councils?

Telecommunications Corporations

MTN

In the hit parade of corporate social responsibility, MTN is a pacesetter, launching the MTN Foundation way back in 2004. It has devoted 1% of its annual profits to corporate social responsibilities, managed through it’s MTN Foundation which is co-sponsored with its staff. The Foundation invests in health, educational and telecommunications infrastructures to the benefit of several councils nationwide.

Orange

It recently won the corporate social investment trophy as best health sponsor in 2014 in a study compiled by ESSEC Douala students. The Orange Foundation also exists to manage the company’s corporate social investments, a highlight of which is “Orange Village” a project that constructs or rehabilitates schools, health centres and water points. The first such project in Cameroon was implemented in Bonepoupa near Douala in 2014 while the second was implemented in Ngomedzap Council near Mbalmayo, in 2016. Orange also proposes “Digital houses” specially targeting women for training in information technology, having done so in Yaounde, Kumba, Bamenda, Sangmelima and Bertoua.   

Financial Institutions

Banks, beside the traditional CSR activities associated with health, education, sports and community infrastructure development, also have a domain in which they intervene exclusively: rendering access to financial services through micro-finance activities, usually in partnership with established micro-financial institutions. ECOBANK and Afriland First Bank are examples in this respect. The ECOBANK Foundation partners with 200 micro-financial institutions to this effect while Afriland First Bank partners with MUFFA and MC2 to help bring finances to the neediest in councils, both in cities and rural areas.

Western Union

The Western Union Foundation, the charity arm of the international money transfer giant donated 200 million CFA francs to support SOS Kinderdorf International activities in Cameroon, helping host, educate and entertain 200 vulnerable children and orphans from several African countries. This aid took the form of a cheque issued to the association in October 2015.

Petroleum companies and transporters

CAMRAIL

This subsidiary of French multinational Bolloré has invested more than 700 million CFA francs in the fight against AIDS alone, between 2005 and 2016. These investments however, mostly benefited its staff and medical centres, though fallouts have been noted in councils like Ngaoundere, Belabo and Eseka, which host some of these centres.

Addax Petroleum

One of the most significant corporate social investments of this petroleum company benetitted the Buea Community through the equipment of the Buea University Industrial Engineering Department with machinery and materials worth 100 million CFA francs in April 2015.

Total Cameroun

This subsidiary of French petroleum giant, Total, signed a convention in January 2014 with the University of Douala Business School, ESSEC, in which it helps professionalise training by helping to develop curricula and provide internships, and in return, employs the best students.

COTCO

Working through its main subsidiary, Exxon-Mobile’s Foundation, this company, that manages the Cameroonian section of the Chad-Cameroon pipeline, revealed during the celebration of its 10^th anniversary in January 2014 that it had devoted 2.2 billion francs to health and social infrastructure in Cameroon for its ten years of existence, in addition to 250 million CFA exclusively for the riparian communities.

Food processors and agro-industries

Guinness Cameroon SA

Its parent company, DIAGEO, a South African concern, runs a “Water is Life” project since 2006, and in 2014, Cameroon benefitted in the form of provision of water points at several localities throughout the country, a project worth 120 million CFA francs. Its resumption of sponsorship of the Mt Cameroon Race of Hope in 2013 also helped raise the profile of the event with a 600% increase of the main prize from 1.5 million to 10 million CFA francs. 

Les Brasseries du Cameroun

Environment, education, health, sports and arts and culture are the corporate social responsibility warhorses of this Cameroonian brewery giant, SABC, which has existed since 1948 and dominates 83 % of Cameroon’s huge beer market.

Plantations du Haut Penja

This Njombe based subsidiary of multinational, Compagnie Fruitière, is registered in Mbanga and has been active in the Banana sector since 1973. It has subscribed to the Fairtrade label which represents its commitment to share 1 dollar/carton of banana exported with the workers. This amount is paid into an account that sponsors CSR chosen by democratically elected committees based in each production centre of the company. However, their definition of CSR seems to be limited to charity, like for most multinationals in the developing world, as recent events involving a huge corruption scandal where the corporation pays tax money into the private accounts of top regime barons show.

This is just a tip of the iceberg. However, it should be noted that, being rivals in business, some of these companies use their corporate social investments as a new ground of competition, thus reducing effectiveness. This is another argument for the call of some form of regulation of the domain of corporate social responsibility, justifying calls by the Egyptian Corporate Social Responsibility Forum for initiatives to unify the efforts of private sector to ensure integration rather than competition to develop the society. This can only be ensured by a regulatory body.

Tengwan Ambe Frederick