Zinox, Doing Good with CSRCorporate social responsibility (CSR) is a massive bandwagon; generating both accolades and cynicism.
But when it comes to a local company doing extraordinary things without expectation of recognition, it shows extraordinary determination to push the society a little further on towards the heights of excellence.
And while many organizations and institutions feel deeply frustrated with the government and indeed the country, this company remain convinced that the fundamental structure must be underpinned for generations yet unborn.
It is the story of the exceptional corporate social responsibility initiatives of Zinox Group, the proudly Nigerian IT conglomerate.
It is a story of placing the country first; of sticking with the society through thick and thin; and of giving back to men and women that have helped the company grow.
CSR is an integral part of the Zinox Group’s development policy. It is part of the everyday life of the company.
Its objective is to allow the Group pursue sustainable yet profitable growth while having a positive impact on the society in which it develops.
For instance, the Group donated items worth over N50 million to the Lagos State Government.
These items include ; four units of fully equipped Security Vans, 150 units of Digital Radio, 150 units of Digital Solar lamp and 150 units of solar torch meant to enhance the efficiency and digital comfort of the Police and other security organizations in Lagos State while on duty.
Zinox Group also made the same intervention in Imo State that cuts across security, digital equipment, Information and Communication Technology development for school pupils and training for teachers. It is also spending N50 million in the state.
The company’s CSR which is championed by Leo-Stan Ekeh, the chairman of the group and enthusiastically embraced by the board of directors and staff also targets the younger generation.
The company is to use four schools in Lagos state as Digital Content Centres for its new digital Product – the Zinox Whizkid Ver. 11, which has helped many students to achieve excellent result in GCE, WASCE, JAMB and Post UME nationwide.
Ekeh said Zinox will deploy the equipment and content, train the teachers in its digital laboratory in Gbagada, Lagos and certify them ready to challenge the best teachers in the world.
Zinox has a history of a responsible corporate citizenship in Lagos beginning with the equipping of a digital laboratory at the Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu.
It has upgraded and tarred of the Redemption Crescent, Gbagada; aroused competition in mathematics for pupils in Primary 4; donated computers to many schools in Lagos State including Queens College, Yaba, and Archbishop Aggey Memorial Secondary School, Mushin; trained four budding entrepreneurs in the Spirit of the True Nigerian Entrepreneur, SoTNE and settled medical bills of many patients.
In Imo State, the group is a household name where it has touched many lives.
It recently topped it up with an intervention that cuts across security, digital equipment, Information and Communication Technology development for school pupils and training for teachers and worth N50 million.
The donation include four security vans, 150 Jonta flash lights, 150 self-charging digital lanterns, and 150 I-Max radio sets that would help support the security monitoring responsibility of the state.
Ekeh said his group of companies primarily concerned with knowledge development and building a new generation of Nigerians would also donate digital knowledge content encapsulated in the Zinox Whizkid Version 2 to four schools in the state.
This content would make kids from public schools better, while enhancing the overall academic performance of the underserved.
Elsewhere, in support of structured overall social development of Imo state, Zinox released some N10milion a few months ago to the Imo Foundation set up by Governor Rochas Okorocha.
The Group has a tradition of executing major CSR every five years outside its annual commitments in the spirit of Zinox.
The company had built and equipped digital laboratories at the Federal Polytechnic, Nekede; Imo State University; Federal University of Technology, Owerri; and some secondary schools in the state.
There is no geo-political zone in the country that has not been touched by Zinox interventions in tertiary, secondary and primary education since the company’s interest is in capacity building has benefitted scores of Imo indigenes in the form of scholarships at all levels of education, including post graduate education in world class European and American universities.
Zinox CSR is intensely focused on the building of capacities for the growth of a knowledge society and equipping Nigeria to host complex events.
From Katsina to Awka and from Markudi to Ikorodu, Zinox is strategic interventions aimed at building capacities.
It has used CSR as a way to motivate all employees – starting at the lowest level of the organization because as part of its internally-focused initiative, the Zinox Group offer scholarships to the children of all its employees who earn less than N1milion as gross salary per annum.
In simple terms, Zinox is pro-active towards “doing good”.