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Touching Lives Through Corporate Social Responsibility(This Day (Nigeria) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Corporate social responsibility is not new in Nigeria. While most organisations have imbibed the culture and have excelled in it, there are those waiting to be 'pushed' into rendering some salient responsibilities to their immediate community in which they operate. Following the banking consolidation which ended on a good note for 25 banks in 2005, Diamond Bank Plc, which strongly emerged with solid capital base has been in the forefront of providing succor to its immediate environment. Even before consolidation, the bank has never turned its back against any community or institution that has requested attention from them. Recently, as part of its corporate responsibility drive, Diamond Bank donated a new Toyota Coaster bus that is valued at over N8 million to the University of Jos (UNIJOS), Plateau State. The event took place at the administrative campus of the school. It was witnessed by some members of the governing council. Such similar gestures has been replicated in many states of the federation. Towards the end of 2006, the bank expressed support to the authorities of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka (UNIZIK) by donating a similar Toyota bus valued at the same amount. The bank had also made a similar donation to the University of Lagos (UNILAG) during the maiden edition of the West African Universities' Games. The bank's line of responsibility does not only lie in donating buses. They have also meaningfully impacted on the society in many ways. They have been playing front-line roles in corporate social responsibility and advocacy in the education sector and the health sector. It built and handed over to Imo State University (IMSU), a fully furnished computer centre at the cost of over N10 million. It has also spent N6 million naira on the construction of a dormitory complex for children with special needs at the Madonna School for the Handicapped Children, in Okpanam, near Asaba, Delta State. There is also the free eye test and treatment programmes which has been recorded to the bank's credit. The reasons it is shouldering such responsibilities to the universities according to the executive director, commercial banking, Mr. Uk Eke, is not far-fetched. He once noted that the gesture reflects the bank's contribution towards uplifting the standard of tertiary education in Nigeria. "For the nation's human resources gap to be adequately filled, it is pertinent to invest in youth development, which is a course Diamond Bank firmly supports", Eke aptly told the former Vice-Chancellor of UNILAG Prof. Oye Ibidapo-Obe in one of the bank's donation of a bus to the school. Eke noted that the gesture reflects the bank's resolve to engage students in physical and mental exercise as a way of curbing social ills. In all indications, what Diamond Bank is doing, he explained, is in tandem with their objective in supporting the society. Something he said that is really not unique and calls for no celebration. Meeting the needs and challenges of either schools or communities by Diamond Bank does not come overnight. Demand must be made to the bank in the first place. For instance, before the coaster bus was donated to UNIJOS, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Sonni Tyoden, revealed that in his first few months in office, what he did was to make some demand from all the banks before Diamond Bank's response. "Our constituency is national because we have presence in all the states of the federation. Then we have to come to the right environment. We have to have the attention of the vice chancellor of the school. We have to have the target market willing to receive us. Because unless you have those attributes of those parameters sorted out, we can not just make donations", Eke explained while donating the coaster bus at UNIJOS which is aimed at alleviating the transport challenges the university is facing. Though with an eye of enlarging their coast in business, basically what the executive director said is that the bank will write to the universities, discuss with them and identify their needs and then write them back to articulate their responses to those needs. "From east to the west, to the north and to the south, we have been doing this in the last five years. Clearly our goal is to reach all the universities because at the end of the day they represent the fixed stock that breed the future generation of workers in the banks and the economy. So we must encourage them and it is not the duty of the universities to go looking for funds", Eke stated. He said it was the duty of the banks to create the right framework for students and faculty to understand the essence of banking, so that when they graduate, then they can become customers of the bank and therefore the profit will come later. "The motive is not really profit. It is basically giving back to the society in the first instance and then when you have done that, hopefully it will translate to profit in future", he said. Other packages the bank intends to establish with UNIJOS include, to introduce a credit facility worth about N2 million for the staff of the university; open a branch of the bank in the school premises; provide a resource centre with internet facilities; provide work station as well as book stores for the benefit of the students and other members of the academic community whom he said operate accounts with the bank. He laid emphasis on credit facility, which he urged the university of Jos lecturers to take advantage and enjoy from the bank. This of course is expected to benefit most of the lecturers who are supposed to enjoy the benefit of their job. The facility will be evolved by the bank to assist the lecturers to improve their homes, acquire assets or buy shares. On their own, they may not be able to access funds or facilities. But for the fact that they work in universities, then that should be sufficient for them to enjoy credit facilities from banks. He explained that already, two universities in the country have taken advantage of this facility, and that the bank has since doubled the credit facility limits made available to those universities. "By doing all these, the bank would only be replicating what it had already done in some major universities in the country all in its bid to ensure that the bulk of the students and other members of the university community have unfettered access to information on a large scale", he said. In most universities Diamond Bank has shown presence, nevertheless the authorities of those institutions usually appreciate the kind gesture exhibited by the bank. Prof. Tyoden of UNIJOS was quick to explain that for long the university has been relating with most of the banks, but that the benefit accruing from such relationship had been rather one-sided. However, he was now happy that banks are waking up to their responsibility, having realised that the hands of friendship should be joined together from both sides. Like Oliver Twist, the vice chancellor did not fail to ask for attention particularly in the area of infrastructural development at the permanent site, though not directing the appeal to Diamond Bank per se. Rather, he called on the banks to also assist in that direction by helping with the provision of some facilities that will aid at developing the permanent site. He said the age of liberalisation and privatisation in which the economy has moved to should give banks the opportunity to assist government develop the universities that are calling for attention. "Government alone cannot develop the universities these days. There was the need for the private sector to come in and assist in the best possible way it could in the development of education in the country", Tyoden said. At a similar donation in UNILAG, Prof. Ibidapo-Obe, the former vice chancellor of the school, expressed appreciation to the bank and revealed that in the long history of UNILAG, this marks the first time a corporate organisation would donate a brand new vehicle to the school. "The bus would be used judiciously because the bank has not only supported UNILAG, but the entire youth in the country. Also a land will be allocated for the bank's proposed ICT centre", he said. For the Vice Chancellor of UNIZIK, Prof. Ilochi Okafor, it was not a different thing. Prof. Okafor, admitted to the deteriorating standard of tertiary education but restated that it is every Nigerian's responsibility to bring back the days of glory. "Tertiary education in the developed world is valued greatly because of the support of the real sector. Therefore other corporate organizations should toe Diamond Bank's line, and we have written its name on the sand prints of the school", Okafor said. Apart from education Diamond bank is a member of the Arrive Alive Road Safety Initiative. This is in collaboration with Chevron Nigeria and six other companies established to encourage road safety thereby reducing the risks associated with road usage. Also, the bank contributes to the fight against the HIV/AIDS scourge through its support for the Nigerian Business Coalition Against AIDS (NIBUCAA), a non-governmental organisations made up of companies that are committed to providing leadership towards advancing the national response to the pandemic. As if it is not all, the bank has thrown its weight towards ridding the country of blindness, a collaboration they formed with Eye Foundation Hospital, Lagos to conduct free eye test and surgeries in states. No doubt, the bank might have been spurred into launching of the scheme as a result of a recent global research conducted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB). The joint venture to support Vision 2020, revealed that an estimated 40 to 45 million people are blind while 135 million have low vision. However, 80 per cent of visual loss, the research further revealed could be prevented or cured. The bank conceived the idea of the free eye programme in 1999, after a major policy rethink in the area of corporate social responsibility. The reason, THISDAY gathered, was to strengthen the banks direct involvement in its primary operational environment in such a way that the resultant impact is maximised for society's most needy. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media. (allafrica.com) Copyright 2007 This Day (Nigeria) , Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media , Source: The Financial Times Limited |