Etisalat Trains NGOs on CSR Awareness, Practice

Etisalat Nigeria, the fastest growing and most innovative telecommunications operator in the country, recently organized a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) training workshop for Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) with a view to partnering them in its avowed commitment to drive the nation’s economic development.

The two-day workshop held at the Etisalat CSR Centre situated at the Lagos Business School, focused on awareness and professional CSR practice to enable participating NGOs tap into available opportunities in Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives.

The workshop which follows a similar one held last year also had as its objective, preparing and equipping participating NGOs with necessary tools and CSR models that would help them access more partnership opportunities with stakeholders and the society especially in the area of private sector partnership, whilst contributing to their own bottom line.

Enitan Denloye, Etisalat’s director, Brands and Communications, while speaking at the workshop, said the company’s CSR centre was established in 2010 to assist organizations create lasting value through responsible business strategies and productive stakeholders’ relationship via research, trainings and advocacy in CSR.

He said that Etisalat as a responsible corporate social citizen has contributed immensely to shaping CSR practice in the country, hence the establishment of the CSR centre in collaboration with the Lagos Business School (LBS) to further  CSR conception and practice in Nigeria in an intellectual and practical way.  

“The Centre’s activities would contribute in shaping the perspectives of key policy and decision makers in the public and private sectors thereby positively impacting the various levels of the socio economic strata,” Denloye said.

He further charged participants to take advantage of the workshop to improve on their engagements with corporate organizations especially in the area of pitching proposals, while he emphasized the need for NGOs to align with the core values of the organizations they are pitching to.

Similarly, Sir Chris Ogbechie the director, Etisalat CSR Center, reiterated the challenges of running NGOs in Nigeria although with opportunities inherent in the service.

 He pointed out that the main challenge affecting NGOs was the poor perception of such organisations in Nigeria; however he encouraged the participants not to give up as several multinationals still exercise global best practice in Nigeria and are ready to partner with them as long as their initiatives tie into their objectives.

He further highlighted other factors affecting NGOs to include; poor accessibility to funds, lack of technical expertise and training facilities, lack of transparency and accountability and lack of social reporting processes.
One of the participants at the workshop commended Etisalat Nigeria for sponsoring such an initiative. “I don’t know of any other corporate body that is so passionate about NGOs currently,” he said. He further urged participants to take advantage of the initiative to achieve their goals as companies and NGOs are finding ways to work together.