‘We are committed to executing more sustainable projects that will be beneficial to Nigerians’

As part of its 10th anniversary celebration in September 2015, MTN Foundation redefined the concept of corporate social responsibility with the introduction of What Can We Do Together? (WCWDT). Conceived as a give–back initiative to be implemented in partnership with Nigerians, the project gives opportunity to members of the public to nominate a community of their choice to benefit from 200 projects mapped out by the foundation to make life easy in the grassroots. So far, about 200 communities from across 200 local councils in the country have benefited from projects ranging from school furniture to boreholes, transformers and household items for orphanages. In this interview with CHUKS NWANNE, the Executive Secretary, MTN Foundation, Nonny Ugboma, spoke on the CSR initiative and how it has changed lives in the communities.

What’s the core focus of MTN Foundation and how has it fared so far?
It’s been 10 impactful years since the inception of MTN Foundation, the CSR arm of MTN Nigeria. MTN has from inception committed 1% of its Profit-After-Tax to fund the activities of the foundation. From disability support projects, youth empowerment programs, scholarship schemes, eyesight restoration, medical support initiatives, sickle cell treatment, schools connect projects, ICT development, security and so many more, the activities of the foundation have touched millions of Nigerians across 36 states. MTN and the MTN Foundation uphold the company’s core value of building and sustaining relationships. As a foundation, we are committed to executing more sustainable projects that will be beneficial to Nigerians.

Last year, you came up with the What Can We Do Together (WCWDT), what informed that strategy in executing your CSR projects?
We adopted the nomination strategy to ensure active involvement and participation by members of the public; we wanted to give every community equal opportunity. Usually, we select project beneficiaries using Expressions of Interest and the custodian ministries – be it Health, Education -apply for projects to benefit their States by nominating hospitals or schools to benefit from the project as the case may be. But for this initiative, we invited members of the public to nominate sites for projects. For phase one, we received 37,000 nominations and we shortlisted 600 sites for verification after which 200 sites finally benefited from the project.

What are the highlights of the WCWDT first phase?
The WCWDT Phase 1 witnessed a lot of interesting and exciting experiences. To start off with, majority of the nominators did not believe the initiative was real, hence majority of them were surprised when follow up calls were made to confirm their nominations. Again, the verification process was very intense because MTNF teams had to travel extensively to over 600 sites across the country to ascertain the suitability of the nominated project sites.

What were your findings?
In the course of the verification exercise, the team discovered that some sites were actually non-existent and some of the nominators could not be traced. However, the final nominators were thrilled when announcements were made in the newspapers and social media to publish successful communities. The excitements were heightened when the projects were fully completed and it became a reality; nominators were extremely happy being the initiators of needed infrastructure in their various communities. Another exciting moment was the nominators’ appreciation events organised to celebrate these heroes for believing in us and for their partnerships. They were delighted to have received such a warm reception at the various events put together to honour their involvement.

How challenging was it implementing these projects, considering the number of nominations you received?
We had a post mortem of the Phase 1 to identify challenges and key lessons that came up during the implementation. Then, we reviewed our operating processes and put in place more realistic implementing strategies to address challenges faced in Phase 1. For instance, we increased the number of teams for the verification visits to assess the nominated sites for suitability for the various interventions under the project.

Your organisation is currently facing some regulatory issues in Nigeria; will that in any way effect your commitment to this initiative?
We made a commitment to implement 200 additional projects and as an organisation with integrity, it is important for us to keep our word and deliver as promised to the communities. So, to answer you, we are going on with plans.

Are there plans to expand beyond the existing areas of intervention in the Phase 2 of WCWDT?
There are no immediate plans to expand the scope of this initiative for now because we have comfortably covered the three focal areas of the Foundation – Health, Education and Economic Empowerment. However, in phase 2, we plan to implement the following:- provision of 500kva transformers; provision of boreholes with overhead water storage tanks, pumping machine and generator to pump water; supply of modern school furniture to schools and supply of basic medical equipment to community Primary Healthcare Centres (PHC). The PHCs will replace the orphanage support implemented in phase 1 because it was very challenging identifying qualifying orphanage homes across the country.

Nigeria is currently going through economic recession, which is affecting a lot of organisations. Will that in any way deter the Foundation from excusing proposed projects?
MTNF will continue to support Nigerians within the limits of available resources, especially prior commitments made to beneficiaries such as existing scholarship awardees in our various scholarship projects. However, due to the challenges arising from the impact of several current operating business factors, we are unable to implement brand new projects.

Sustaining CSR initiatives has been a major issue, particularly with the perceived high cost of doing business in Nigeria, what has been your strategy in addressing this challenge?
Following recurrent failure of custodian beneficiary institutions and agencies to honour their counterpart commitments to projects, the Foundation has defined sustainability in the light of, and focused on implementing, projects, which have positive long-term impact on beneficiaries. The Foundation now implements only projects, which require little or no financial contribution from custodian beneficiary institutions and agencies to be sustainable. In Phase 1, 200 projects were successfully delivered in 200 communities across 200 Local Government Areas in the 36 states of the Federation, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The projects were in four focus areas of transformer, borehole, school furniture and household item donations to select orphanages. The nomination for phase 2, which started May 12, will focus on transformer, borehole, school furniture and medical supply donations to community health care centres. That Nigerians nominated their communities in the campaign shows that they care. That the nominators were celebrated further reinforce an appreciation for an initiative that has impacted millions of Nigerians.

The MTNF/MUSON Scholarship programme recently had their 9th graduation concert. How impactful has this initiative been to young people?
The project was established in 2007 as a strategic partnership with the Musical Society of Nigeria (MUSON) to provide music scholarships for musically talented persons from less-privileged background to acquire quality music education culminating in internationally recognised diploma. The intervention is a 2-year music scholarship program at the MUSON School of Music and in September 2016, 29 scholars graduated, bringing the total number of MTNF-MUSON scholars to receive the MUSON Diploma to 241.

The initiative provides opportunities for Nigerian youth in the arts/culture and music sector. Many have formed bands and perform at different fora locally; some are teaching in schools across the country and thereby preparing the next generation of musicians; some are performing in orchestras abroad, and others are furthering their studies in institutions of music abroad. We are extremely proud of them and their accomplishments.

What’s next after the WCWDT Phase 2?
That will be telling! Let’s finish implementing Phase 2 of the project and of course, an assessment will be conducted to inform our next steps.