Chris Ogbechie

Corporate social responsibility in Nigeria: western mimicry or indigenous influences?

Drawing empirical evidence from indigenous firms, this study explores the meaning and practice of CSR in Nigeria. It was found that indigenous firms perceive and practise CSR as corporate philanthropy aimed at addressing socioeconomic development challenges in Nigeria. This finding suggests that CSR is a localised and socially embedded construct, as the waves’, ‘issues’ and ‘modes’ of CSR practices identified among indigenous firms in Nigeria reflect the firms’ responses to their socioeconomic context. It is anticipated that this paper will add to the body of knowledge on CSR, especially as it relates to Africa, which has a relative dearth of literature on CSR, and provide some insights to multinational firms operating in Nigeria.

Board characteristics and involvement in strategic decision making

Purpose – This paper aims to review how corporate governance is institutionalised in Nigeria and examine the relationship between board size, CEOs’ duality, board composition and the boards involvement in strategy.Design/methodology/approach – A structured questionnaire was sent by post to the chairmen of 138 publicly quoted companies in Nigeria in November 2004.Findings – Using primary and secondary data, our results suggest that the Nigerian public companies have embraced some principles of the Code of Best Practices for Public Companies. There is a high level of board involvement in strategy decision‐making process, but no correlation was found between board involvement and a number of governance variables (board size, board independence and CEO duality).Research limitations/implications – The sample of 39 responding companies is small although it represents a 28 per cent of response rate and is representative of the Nigerian stock market. However, we are unable to look at other factors such as indust...

Corporate governance practices in publicly quoted companies in nigeria

This study evaluates corporate governance issues in publicly quoted companies in Nigeria, which border on board characteristics, composition and roles in strategy development processes, appraisal of directors, as well as relationships between boards and CEO, top management and other stakeholders. The empirical findings of the study reveal useful insights with respect to corporate governance practices in Nigeria. The results show that Nigerian public companies have embraced the principles of good corporate governance, although they are at different levels of adoption of the various corporate governance issues. These companies have medium-sized boards, with majority of them having leadership structures that are characterised by separation of the positions of chairman and CEO. This paper draws a number of conclusions and recommendations and also highlights some limitations that can be improved upon in future studies.

Banking on Africa: Can Emerging Pan-African Banks Outcompete Their Global Rivals?

With the increasing liberalization and globalization of the financial services sector, there has been a rise in the foreign ownership of banking assets around the world. Interestingly, in Africa, there has been a remarkable rise of domestic and regional banks in the last decade or so, as challenger firms position themselves to lead a sector that has historically been dominated by Western players since the colonial era. This trend runs counter to the current dominance of foreign multinationals in many sectors across Africa, and raises a pertinent question: Can African-owned banks outcompete their global counterparts in the region? In this chapter, we provide a brief overview of the evolution of competition in banking, and analyse the state of cross-border banking in the region. In addition to providing insights on the internationalization strategies and outcomes of leading foreign and pan-African banks, we offer perspectives on the future competitive landscape.

Social entrepreneurship: answering “the call of nature”

Subject area The case concerns sustainability and social entrepreneurship. Study level/applicability The case is relevant for teaching sustainability and social entrepreneurship to MBA students as well as for executive training programmes for middle- and senior-level employees. Case overview The Dignified Mobile Toilets (DMT) case describes how the innovative idea of Isaac Durojaiye, popularly known as Otunba Gadaffi, yielded a lot of socioeconomic and environmental impact and changed the face of sanitary health in Nigeria as well as glamorized what he called “shit business.” The case gives an account of how Isaac Durojaiye – a graphic artist and a credit card fraud investigator – conceived and built the first mobile toilet in Nigeria by using a 40-feet container. Initially, he had to battle with the lack of patronage, as not a single order came in for the first four years that the wagon toilet was displayed. But Durojaiye was not discouraged because he was involved in security consulting along with the sanitary job. The case recounts how the Founder/CEO of DMT mobile toilets identified social issues (lack of public toilet facilities, poverty, disease, unemployment, crime and so on) in the society and turned it into business success; his efforts helped the development of the social sector in Nigeria. The case also narrates the growth of the mobile toilet market in Nigeria and DMTs market share of this sector. This case also describes the poor state of public toilet facilities in Nigeria, which forced people to answer the call of nature in open places, thereby polluting the environment and jeopardizing public health. The DMT marketing strategy and how the company made proper use of the area boys and widows to franchise their toilets was stated. The case also highlights the social and environmental impact of DMT toilets and the companys future direction. Expected learning outcomes The case will help student see opportunities in the social space and understand that there are business models that provide both social and economic benefits simultaneously. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email: support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

The Role of Reseller’s Salespeople in Price Setting Within Firms

Although reseller’s salespeople contribute significantly to the selling efforts of many organizations, few studies have investigated their involvement in price setting within the firm. This study draws on the social exchange theory to explain how norms of exchange shape the type of price setting arrangements (whether participative or non-participative) adopted by the organizations. Furthermore, the study explains how these arrangements affect the selling efforts of the focal firms. We find that firms adopting participative price setting secure high sales volumes from their salespeople while those propelling non-participative pricing do not. These insights provide a socially situated view of price setting within the firm which complements existing theoretical perspectives. The practical implication of these findings is that managers and firms seeking to engage reseller’s sales people must carefully select the most suitable norm of exchange to secure positive outcomes. We also draw up an agenda for future research from our findings.

Dynamic Interaction between Capital Flows, Exchange Rates and Growth: Evidence From Nigeria

This paper examines the relationship between capital flows, exchange rate, and growth for the Nigerian economy for the periods 1986-2014. Employing the vector autoregressive (VAR) approach, empirical findings from the impulse response reveals that capital inflows respond negatively to changes in exchange rate. Also, the results show that capital inflows react positively to growth suggesting that the higher the economic growth the more the capital inflows. The study also shows that exchange rate response positively to shock in capital inflows suggesting that the more the capital inflows the more the Nigeria currency appreciates. Furthermore, it was found that growth responds positively to shock in capital inflows indicating that the higher the capital inflows the higher the rate of economic growth. The variance decomposition of capital inflows shows that variation in capital inflows is greatly influenced by growth. Also, the variance decomposition of exchange rate suggests that capital inflow plays a significant role in the variation of the exchange rate. Furthermore, the outcome of the study also shows that both the capital inflows and exchange rate produce almost the same influence on economic growth. Finally, employing the Granger causality in determining the causal relationship between the variables, it was found that there is a unidirectional causal relationship between growth and capital inflows in Nigeria. The implication of this study is that government should design and implement policies towards enhancing economic growth to stimulate capital inflow.

The Nigerian Beer Wars: SABMiller’s Entry into the Nigerian Brewing Space

The Nigerian Beer Wars case examines the industry structure and competitive strategy of the incumbents in the Nigerian beer market, Nigerian Breweries and Guinness, in the face of the threat of the entry of SABMiller, Africa’s largest brewer, into the Nigerian market. The Nigerian beer market was dominated by the duopoly of Nigerian Breweries and Guinness, with a combined market share of 80 %. After some failed attempts to enter the Nigerian market, SABMiller eventually succeeded via an acquisition. In view of the fact that Nigeria’s beer consumption was 10 litres per capita, substantially below the global average of 27 litres per capita, what would be the best approach for the incumbents to fend off the rising threat posed by this new entrant?

Equity Bank’s Internationalization: Building an African Multinational

Equity Bank, a leading Kenyan Bank and one of the most established financial institutions in Africa has ambitiously set out to achieve its long-term objective of championing the socio-economic empowerment of Africans by extending its operations to other African countries. Its initial internationalization trajectory has taken it to the major East African countries, with subsidiaries in Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and South Sudan. Aiming to expand beyond East Africa, the bank has announced an ambitious plan to enter Ethiopia, Burundi, DR Congo, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Cameroon and Nigeria. The bank’s plan to enter Nigeria, the most populous and largest economy in Africa, is by far the most complex and ambitious in its rapid international expansion. Although the Nigerian banking space is quite concentrated, with well-capitalized banks that have well-developed product portfolios that meet the banking needs of Nigerian corporates, opportunities still exist at the middle and bottom of the pyramid. The case examines the situation in 2014, when Equity had to examine what options would ensure that its entry into Nigeria would be successful and sustainable.

FirstBank of Nigeria: Developing an Internationalization Strategy

Mr Bisi Onasanya, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of FirstBank of Nigeria Ltd (FBN) was collecting his thoughts after a meeting held with officials of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the apex regulator of the Nigerian financial services industry. He had been appointed Managing Director of FBN in 2009 and was directing the bank’s ambitious agenda of establishing its presence in most major cities of Sub-Saharan Africa. He reflected on CBN’s plan to make Nigeria Africa’s financial capital and major financial services hub and the role FBN had to play as Nigeria’s largest bank in this process. Bisi synthesized some crucial lessons he would have to bring to bear as Nigeria moved up the African scale of economic importance and relevance. FBN’s Nigerian heritage laid the framework for its proposed aggressive internationalization.