Businesses pledge stronger partnerships to address Africa’s challenges

Chief executives of businesses operating in Nigeria have agreed on the need to form stronger partnerships among their corporations with other players in Africa to tackle the challenges facing the continent.

The decision is one of the outcome of a breakfast roundtable organised for CEOs by the Nigerian Network of the United Nations Global Compact, an alliance of private-sector chief executives who are committed to supporting the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs).

The UN Global Compact also launched its Africa Strategy 2021-2023 at the session held on Tuesday in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital.

Unveiling Africa Strategy 2021-2023 on behalf of Global Compact’s Chief Executive Officer and Assistant Secretary-General Sanda Ojiambo, the organisation’s head of Intergovernmental Relations and Africa, Mrs. Olajobi Makinwa, said the plan offered large and small businesses opportunities to accelerate and scale their impact while learning best practices.

“It is about mobilizing businesses for impact in Africa,” she said in reference to the purpose of the strategy.

She said the strategy would help the private sector in Nigeria and Africa to forge stronger partnerships to realise the SDGs, the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the Global Compact’s four pillars of human rights, environment, labour and anti-corruption.

Localised solutions

The Africa Strategy 2021-2023 is intended to mobilize private-sector resources to combat climate change; foster gender equality; promote decent work and economic growth; ensure peace, justice and good governance; and build partnerships for the realization of the goals.

A member of Global Compact’s Board, Flora Mutahi, said the launch of the strategy was an opportunity for African businesses to devise locally relevant solutions to the continent’s challenges with hunger, poverty, healthcare, education and in other areas.

According to her: “It is important to localize (our interventions) because Africa has its own unique set of challenges which also brings out a unique set of opportunities.”

On his part, the Managing Director of Unilever West Africa, Carl Cruz, urged all businesses to align their activities to ‘a sustainable, inclusive future’ in order to protect and preserve the globe.

Greater impact

The unveiling of Africa Strategy 2021-2023 laid the ground for the inauguration of the Africa Regional Hub scheduled for Thursday in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja.

The hub will coordinate the activities of local networks in the continent and serve as a link between country networks of the Global Compact and the headquarters in New York as they work to deepen their impact in the various countries.

To further deepen the impact of their interventions, the Resident Coordinator of the UN in Nigeria, Matthais Schmale, urged the private sector to extend its partnership to the public sector and the civil society.

He said corporate support for United Nations and various government programs will transform the world as it fights against hunger, poverty and other challenges.