Corporate Social Responsibility and Entrepreneurship (CSRE): Antidotes to Poverty, Insecurity and Underdevelopment in Nigeria

By *Akhuemonkhan, I. A., *Raimi, L. and **Ogunjirin, O. D.

*Centre for Entrepreneurship Development **Department of Social Science Yaba College of Technology, Nigeria

Abstract
In the face of dwindling financial resources in the treasury of governments, the complementary role of business organisations in combating social problems is becoming an acceptable norm in both developed and developing nations. On the strength of the foregoing reality, this paper examines the prospect of utilising corporate social responsibility and entrepreneurship (CSRE) as antidotes for mitigating the incidences of poverty, insecurity and underdevelopment in Nigeria. The paper derives its theoretical foundation from the stakeholder, instrumental and legitimacy theories, which all justify the use of CSRE for actualisation of Tripple Bottom Line (that is, the social, economic and environmental concerns of business organisations).

Abstract
Based on the foregoing approach, relevant qualitative and quantitative data were extracted from the reports/publications of Central Bank of Nigeria, National Bureau of Statistics, Office of the Millennium Development Goals, previous research works, relevant online databases and media reports on the subject matter. The qualitative and quantitative data were streamlined and subjected to content analysis and econometric analysis respectively on the basis of which informed conclusions were drawn. On the strength of the data sourced and analysed, it was discovered that CSR and Entrepreneurship could be potent antidotes for poverty, insecurity and underdevelopment in Nigeria. The paper therefore boldly recommends that policymakers reinvent CSRE as development mechanisms through a sound partnership between government, advocacy groups and business corporations in Nigeria.

Country Profile
Nigeria is a coastal country blessed with a population of over 150 million citizens, who spread across thirty-six (36) states and a federal capital territory at Abuja (Alkali, 2008). Nigeria is part of the SANE (South Africa, Algeria, Nigeria and Egypt) countries with GDP of over USD100.00 billion. Nigeria is part of the NEKS (Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya and South Africa) nations describe as having huge untapped markets for foreign direct investment (Alkali, 2008). Investment thrives in Nigeria despite rising incidences of corruption and mismanagement of oil resources by the ruling elites (DFID, 2000; Watts, 2009). Studies indicate that average return on investment (ROI) stood at 20% per annum.

Challenges
Nigeria faces multidimensional challenges, viz: Scourge of poverty as a result of political corruption; Rising incidence of unemployment because of unplanned efforts towards human capital development (Awopegba, 2001:157; Insecurity of lives & properties engendered by Armed Robbers, Boko Haram terrorists and Niger-Delta militants;

State of underdevelopment caused by infrastructural decay/neglect, cornering of state resources and bad governance.

Objective of Research
This research attempts to reinvent corporate social responsibility and entrepreneurship as antidotes for mitigating the incidences of poverty, insecurity and underdevelopment that have assumed endemic status in Nigeria.
.

Review of Literature I
Corporate Social Responsibility The working definition corporate social responsibility in this paper is the United Kingdom perspective, which Forstater et al., (2010:13) encapsulated ...as how companies address the social, environmental and economic impacts of their operations and so help to meet our sustainable development goals. In other words, corporate social responsibility is viewed as the voluntary actions that business organisations initiate, beyond compliance with minimum legal requirements, to address both its own competitive interests and the interests of wider society including host communities in the forms of welfare support services and palliatives.

Review of Literature II
Entrepreneurship According to Penrose (1995:3) entrepreneurship is a slippery concept. In this paper, entrepreneurship is defined as a resource and a process exploited by individuals as business opportunities for the creation and nurturing of new businesses in enabling market (Baliamoune-Lutz, 2007; Naud, 2010). Brixiova (2010:440) views entrepreneurship as a key driver of economic development through fostering growth, job creation, technology adoption and innovation as well as poverty alleviation. It is a process of idea discovery, development, evaluation and exploitation.

Theoretical Framework
Stakeholder Theory: CSRE is reinvented as socio-economic obligations of business to diverse socio-economic needs of their multiple stakeholders in the environments where they operate (Ismail, 2009; Knox and Maklan 2004). Instrumental theory: CRSE is reinvented as a strategic instrument for boosting shareholder's wealth, competitive advantage, reputations, image, perceptions, market share, stock rating, long term profitability et cetera (Ismail, 2009; Garriga and Mele, 2004). Legitimacy Theory: CSRE is reinvented as a legal obligation expected of a law-abiding business organisations, that is, playing by the rules of the game. (Jamali et al., 2007:246).

Theoretical Framework II

Insecurity
Poverty Unemployment

Development

Corporate Socially Responsible Entrepreneurship

Poverty in Nigeria
Onibokun and Kumuyi (1996) argues that poverty describes a situation where people are forced live with paucity of vital resources or a situation where they are made to endure harsh and inhospitable environments occasioned by breakdown of economic, demographic, ecological, cultural, and social systems and the impact of bad governance. As we speak official data indicates that the poverty situation of Nigerians is deteriorating on account of corruption, infrastructural decay, unemployment and bad governance.

Poverty Reduction Efforts

Failed poverty reduction programmes include: Operation Feed the Nation (OFN); Green Revolution; Low Cost Housing Scheme; River Basin Development Authorities (RBDA); National Land Development Authority (NALDA); Agricultural Development Programs (ADP); Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme (ACGS); Rural Electrification Scheme (RES); Rural Banking Program (RBP); Directorate of Food, Roads, and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI); Better Life Program (BLP); National Directorate of Employment (NDE); Family Economic and Empowerment Program(FEEP); Peoples Bank of Nigeria (PBN); Community Banks Program; Family Support Program (FSP); Family Economic Advancement Program (FEAP); National Poverty Eradication Program (NAPEP); Small Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN); 7-Poing Agenda. Presently, Nigeria runs

Economic Transformation Agenda/Vision 20:2020/MDGs.

Poverty Scourge & Unemployment

Year
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

Unemployment Rate
13.6 12.6 14.8 13.4 11.9 12.3 12.7 14.9 19.7 21.1 23.9

Poverty Index
65.6 65.6 65.5 54.4 54.4

54.4 70.0 51.6 55

69 72

Insecurity in Nigeria
Insecurity is a negative feeling of general fear, constant phobia, unease and nervousness that often trigger a sense of vulnerability, instability and threat to self-image lives and properties (Wikipedia, 2012). In order to forestall insecurity and threats to lives and properties in Nigeria, the National Security Agency (NSA) comprising of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), State Security Service (SSS), Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), and Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) and Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is mandated to keep the country safe(Gbanite, 2002).

Insecurity in Nigeria II
In meeting the commitment to engender peace and security, the federal government dole out monthly the sum of 150 million naira [$1.3 million] to military authorities for the purpose of maintaining security of lives and properties, specifically preservation of oil installations in the NigerDelta (Courson, 2008). More than triple this amount is earmarked to curb the insurgency of Boko Haram in Nigeria. Despite the huge spending on security in Nigeria, the issue of threat to lives and properties continues to reoccur unabated in Nigeria. The data on crime rate speaks better.

Why Insecurity is rising?

Year
1990 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

Crime/Insecurity
275,968 128,257 174,588 155,412 138,001 124,539 176,593 162,040 93,817 90,156 117202 135,234 153,265

Industrial Growth
130.6 138.9 144.1 145.2 147-0 151.2 158.8 120.8 118.6 117.2 119.0 126.9 138.8

Nigerias Level of Development

Development has many perspectives. One perspective defines development as a multidimensional process bringing about radical changes in institutional, social and administrative structures, as well as fundamental changes attitudes, prevalent customs and beliefs (Sanusi, 2010). Another perspective is that development is the process of bringing about physical transformation of the society, which consequently leads to improvement in the standard of living and welfare of the masses of the people. (Raimi and Ogunjirin, 2012:21). On the basis of the two perspective, Nigeria is a developing nation though rich in oil and with rising GDP.

Worsening Development Indicators I

Nigerias development indicators are abysmally poor. Its human development index (HDI) for 2011 was 0.459; a the poor performance that put the country at 156th position out of 187 nations assessed (UNDP, 2011, Raimi et al., 2012). UNDAF (2009:8) indicates that: ...Nigeria's score on the Gender-related Development Index (GDI) is 0.456 or 139th out of 157 countries for which there is data. Roy (2010:49) assert that developing nations reflect: Widespread poverty, corruption, inadequate resources, poorly trained labour supplies, wars and other forms of civil strife such as ethnic cleansing, pandemic diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria, tribal tensions, and ruinous economic policies...

Materials/Methods
The methodology employed is the planned and systematic collection of qualitative and quantitative data on Corporate Social Responsibility, Insecurity, Poverty and Development from the publications of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) et cetera on the subject matter. The qualitative data collected were subjected to content analysis (Sweeny, 2009; Howitt and Cramer, 2010), while the quantitative secondary data were subjected to econometric tests on the basis of which conclusions were drawn (Gujarati, 2006; Sweeny, 2009; Onoja and Agumagu, 2009; Raimi and Ogunjirin, 2012).

Findings/Results

Variable Constant IGR POVR UNEM CSR TC

Coefficient 11561638 -61342.60 -152525.3 944763.9 16909.17 10.66394

Std. Error 22582468 185040.0 181327.1 367526.7 527745.6 4.561935

t-Statistic 0.511974 -0.331510 -0.841161 2.570599 0.032040 2.337591

Prob. 0.6180 0.7460 0.4167 0.0245 0.9750 0.0375

Findings/Results II
GDP-Poverty Link: The first result indicates that there is a negative relationship between gross domestic product (GDP) and poverty rate (POV) at 5% level of significance. The estimated 1 coefficient is -152525.3. GDP-Total Crime Link: The second result indicates that there is a positive significant relationship between gross domestic product (GDP) and total crime rate (TC) at 5% level of significance. The estimated 2 coefficient is 10.66394. GDP-Unemployment Link: There exists a positive relationship between gross domestic product (GDP) and unemployment rate (UNEM) on the basis of the utilised data. The estimated 3 coefficient is 94428390.

Findings/Results III
GDP-Industrial Growth Link: The econometric result indicates that there is a negative relationship between gross domestic product (GDP) and industrial growth rate (IGR) at 5% level of significance. The estimated 4 coefficient is -61342.60.

GDP-Corporate Social Responsibility Link: The econometric result indicates that there is a significant positive relationship between gross domestic product (GDP) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) at 5% level of significance. The estimated 5 coefficient is -16909.17.

Recommendations
The nations Economic team should reinvent corporate social responsibility (CSR) and entrepreneurship as development mechanisms for redressing socio-economic problems of poverty, insecurity and underdevelopment. The entrepreneurship culture and accelerated industrial development in Nigeria should be boosted through unified tax system as opposed to multiple taxes. The Central Bank of Nigeria should ensure that the interest rates charged by all the banks are business-friendly. This can be actualised by pegging national interest rate at one digit rate as obtainable in different parts of the world. This pragmatic move promote entrepreneurship thereby dousing crime rate, terrorism, gansterism, poverty cycle and create direct and indirect jobs for the hopeless youth in Nigeria

Recommendations
Mechanised farming at three levels of governments should be vigorously embraced through public private partnership as policy tool for providing employment for Nigerians. There should be a legislation to prevail on businesses to imbibe the principle and practice of corporate social responsibility. CSR programmes should focus youth empowerment, police support for crime prevention, integration of hosts into their chain supply and infrastructural development. For dousing the threat of insecurity in Nigeria, the governments and interest groups should develop sincere political will to implement the recommendations of several panels. It is suggested that the government and organised private sector organisation cooperate to accelerate growth of industrial sector through integrated measures.

Key References
Alkali, M. G. (2008) Bank of Industry (BOI) Limited, Nigeria. In UNIDO (2008).Strengthening of capacities of private sector agencies and NGOs in selected African countries through regional networking and ECDC/TCDC supporting Women and Youth Entrepreneurship (WED/YED).Available on http://www.g77.org/pgtf/finalrpt/INT-08-K05-FinalReport.pdf. Awopegba, P. O. (2001) Human Capital Development in Nigeria: A Socio-Economic Analysis. Nigerian Journal of Clinical and Counselling Psychology: 7 (1/2), pp. 157-167. Baliamoune-Lutz, M. (2007), Entrepreneurship, Reforms and Development: Empirical Evidence, ICER Working Paper No. 38/2007, Turin. Brixiova, Z. (2010) Unlocking Productive Entrepreneurship in Africas Least Developed Countries. African Development Review, 22(3), pp. 440451. Courson, E. (2008). Federal government contributes 150 million naira [$1.3 million] to the military every month. Excerpt from Boom to Bust in Nigeria written by Will Connors, in the Washington Post, September 15, 2008. Accesses on March 2012. Available online on link http://www.ocnus.net/artman2/publish/Africa_8/From_Boom_to_Bust_in_Nigeria_printer.s html. Forstater, M., Zadek, S., Guang,Y., Chen Xiao Hong, K. Y., and George, M. (2010) Corporate Responsibility In African Development Insights From An Emerging Dialogue. The Institute Of WestAsian and African Studies of The Chinese Academy Of Social Sciences. Working Paper No. 60A Working Paper of the: Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative.

Key References
Garriga, E. and Mele, D. (2004) Corporate social responsibility theories: Mapping and territory. Journal of Business Ethics, 53, pp. 51-74. Gbanite, M. (2002) National security and intelligence in Nigeria under democracy: The way forward. Available on http://www.kwenu.com/publications/max/national_security.htm New Jersey, U.S.A. Howitt, D. and Cramer, D. (2010) Introduction to Research Methods in Psychology.3rd edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Ismail, M. (2009) Corporate Social Responsibility and Its Role in Community Development: An International Perspective.UluslararasSosyalAra_trmalarDergisi (The Journal of International Social Research), 2(9) pp. 199-209. Jamali, D. and Mirshak, R. (2006) Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): Theory and Practice in a Developing Country Context. Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 72, pp. 243 262. Knox, S. and Maklan, S. (2004) Corporate Social Responsibility:Moving Beyond Investment Towards Measuring Outcomes. Source: European Management Journal, 22(5): 508516. Onibokun, A. and A.K. Kumuyi (1996) Urban Poverty in Nigeria: Towards Sustainable Strategies for its Alleviation, CASSAD Monograph Series No. 10.

Key References
Penrose, E. T. (1995 ) The theory of the growth of the firm (3rd edition). Oxford: Oxford

University Press.
Raimi, L. (2012) Corporate Socially Responsible Entrepreneurship (CSRE): A novel management practice for stimulating the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Other Development Blueprints (ODBs) in Nigeria. Presentation at Yaba College of Technology Conference & Research Fair, held from July 23-26, Lagos Nigeria. Roy, D. A. (2010) Trends in Global Corporate Social Responsibility Practices The Case of SubSaharan Africa. International Journal of Civil Society Law, Washington & Lee School, 8(3) July, pp. 48-64. Sanusi, L.S. (2010), Growth Prospects for the Nigerian Economy. Convocation Lecture Delivered at the Igbinedion University Eighth Convocation Ceremony, Okada, Edo State. Sweeney, L. (2009) A Study of Current Practice of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and an Examination of the Relationship between CSR and Financial Performance Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM).Doctoral Thesis. Dublin Institute of Technology, Dublin. United Nations Development Assistance Framework (2009) Nigeria UNDAF II.Available onhttp://www.ng.undp.org/documents/UNDAF_Nigeria_2009.pdf.Accessed on July 13, 2012. United Nations Development Programme (2011) Report on Human Development Index (HDI). Available on http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/NGA.html.