Okobi: A new approach to corporate community relations

A group once approached a business in their community for a bus. The company granted their request and offered a locally branded bus. They picked up the bus, but halfway home, they changed their mind, returned It to the company, and asked for a foreign-branded bus instead.

As trivial as this sounds, it is typical of the unending demands on companies by their host communities, who often see them as the only government they know. Such rampant community requests have come to mischaracterise Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Nigeria as mainly philanthropy.

I started researching and advising on CSR in the early 2000s. Since then, it has become what some people call corporate sustainability, perhaps because sustainability seems more strategic and business-like. Nonetheless, the perception of CSR as corporate philanthropy in Nigeria has persisted because many businesses still build schools, construct roads, sink boreholes, equip hospitals, et cetera, for their communities. However, not all are good at it.

Recently, I encountered a company whose business largely depends on natural resources in a specific community. I asked the managers how long the natural resources would last. About 80 years, they said. The answer was pretty straightforward and without much effort. I paused and asked them what their host community would look like in 80 years, and they were lost for words and scratched their heads instead. It did not take much to conclude that this company was not concerned about developing its host communities sustainably and empoweringly.

Many companies are like this. They would give communities fish instead of teaching them to fish. In the process, they create and foster a culture of problematic community dependency.

When the Nobel laureate in economics, Amartya Sen, described poverty as unfreedom, he didn’t mince words. That’s precisely what it is. As such, any genuine act of empowerment should be liberating and free from a permanent cycle of dependency. In other words, the current practice of corporate community relations in Nigeria must genuinely empower the communities it aims to serve. But how can it do this without a tried and tested model?

This is where the One Kindred One Business Initiative (OKOBI) model of entrepreneurship, championed by Senator Hope Uzodimma, the Governor of Imo State, can be an excellent example for the private sector to emulate. The message of economic freedom encapsulated in OKOBI is the essence of his administration’s 3R agenda (i.e., Reconstruction, Rehabilitation, and Recovery).

OKOBI is about community-based and group-owned businesses. These groups include extended families, villages, communities, friends, alum associations, or religious and social organisations. It is non-political.

OKOBI emphasises the communal spirit of the Igbos of southeast Nigeria anchored on the philosophy of _igwebuike_ (i.e., strength in number). Although not entirely new, it stretches into the past to revitalise a declining ethos of togetherness that has sustained the Igbos despite the current challenges of perceived economic and political marginalisation, culminating in many societal ills. In short, it is a response to high unemployment, poverty, hopelessness, and helplessness.

Since its launch in 2023, there are over 250 OKOBI businesses in Imo State today. Together, they have created over 5000 jobs. Like any business, OKOBI businesses are advised to start with proper needs assessment because meaningful and productive entrepreneurship implies addressing real societal challenges efficiently and profitably. This needs assessment will identify market gaps, opportunities, target customers, and funding sources. Given that the government is not very prescriptive and not a primary investor in these businesses, they have been very creative and flexible in figuring out what works for them.

An example of the OKOBI model in action is the Okpofe Youth Empowerment Scheme (OYES) Multi-purpose Cooperatives in Ezinihitte Local Government Area of Imo State. The cooperative has about 90 members. Many of them are graduates. Instead of waiting for jobs to be given to them, they created their own jobs. They met with their Eze (i.e., local King) and the community elders to secure a space to start their agribusiness, comprising poultry, piggery, fishery, and some vegetable farms. Their mission is to be a major player in their local government area, and their mantra is “Operation feed Ezinihitte”. They tasked themselves according to their competencies and abilities to achieve this goal and placed themselves on salaries.

Given the time it takes for their livestock and vegetables to mature, they involved a local microfinance bank to offer them financial assistance, which means that each cooperative member can borrow up to a certain amount of money every month. The microfinance bank is repaid when they harvest and sell their produce. The excess is partly reinvested in the business and distributed to the members when they make a surplus.

Today, this cooperative has grown to create jobs for non-members and is still expanding. This is a classic case of people doing things for themselves instead of waiting to be fed. Despite the challenges of the time, they have shown a unique expression of individual agency in the face of daunting and discouraging situations.

Learning from OKOBI, corporate community relations can focus on igniting or reviving community collective agency. The beauty of the model is that it can be applied in contexts with similar social structures.

Of course, community development is complex. It’s even more complicated when a business does it alone. Engaging in providing for the people will always create a situation of dependency and leave organisations drained in the long term if care is not taken.

Although the provision of hard infrastructure to communities might seem expedient in the short term, it can become a burden in the long term. This trap must be avoided to achieve an empowering corporate community relationship, and OKOBI can be a credible alternative.

Amaeshi is a professor of sustainable finance at the European University Institute, Italy, Chair in business and sustainable development at the University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom, and a public philosopher. He is currently the Chief Economic Adviser to the Imo State Government, working part-time and pro bono. He tweets @kenamaeshi_