BY JONAH NWOKPOKU

Speakers at a two day summit on Corporate Social Responsibility organised by CSR West Africa in Lagos has called on corporate organisations to ensure inculcation of sustainability elements on their corporate social responsibility strategies.

Speaking on ‘CSR state and of play and trend analysis: understanding the approach of CSR implementation across the region and identifying key areas of development,’ the Executive Director, CSR-in-Action, Bekeme Masade said CSR is undergoing a revolution in Africa and that at the moment; CSR is still similar to community investment.

She said, “The broad concept of community investment is narrowed into the confines of community investment.”

She therefore called for sustainability strategies to get CSR beyond the scope of community investment. She noted that for that to happen, there is need for operational policies for improved prospects on achieving sustainability.

Also speaking, Conference Director of CSR West Africa, Sadie Walters told newsmen that the conference was organised to bring stakeholders together and foster a discourse that will ensure effective CSR implementation in Africa.       “In the Middle East we have a portfolio of CSR events. We have in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and we thought it will be necessary to have events focused on driving the adoption of CSR throughout Nigeria and West Africa.”