Minister advises firms to boost social welfare

By David Ssempijja

Welfare challenges affecting communities would be substantially mitigated, if private firms and public corporations embraced Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), a government minister has observed.

The Information Communication Technology (ICT) state minister Nyombi Thembo noted that giving back to communities doesn’t only help beneficiaries, but also enhances relevancy of the benefactors to the population comprising their target customers.

“Without the communities, companies can’t prosper; therefore, in the face of increased profits, it’s always of great importance to embrace CRS in order to support the welfare of communities as an appreciation for the support rendered by the public to make their firms prosperous,” he said.

CSR aims at embracing responsibility for the companies’ actions as well as encouraging positive change through their activities on the environment, consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders and all other members of the public.

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State minister for ICT Nyombi Thembo and StarTimes CEO Kevin Chen handing over items to the beneficiaries

“It’s not a legal mandate that companies must give back to communities, but CSR especially in the developed world, has for long been part of the most adhered to core values of firms that are sensitive to community development,” he said.

Nyombi was last week addressing residents of Kassanda-Mityana at a function during which he distributed healthcare items including mosquito nets, detergents, clothes as well as TV decoders to the elderly people courtesy of StarTimes, a digital pay television service provider.

“StarTimes has always engaged itself in community development initiatives as a reciprocation  for the support that enabled the firm command the largest market share percentage in Uganda’s pay television industry after bringing onboard more than 150,000 subscribers in just a two years, giving us a record breaking performance” said the company country Chief Executive Officer Kevin Chen.

He said the move was also in-line with the provisions of the United Nations’ Global Compact, an initiative endorsed by chief executives seeking to deepen CSR across the globe.

The Global Compact initiative was also endorsed by Ugandan company executives in 2010 and being implemented with the guidance of the Uganda Chapter for Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives and Federation of Uganda Employers.