Written by
Alfred, Awajigbana Paul
And
Onuegbu, Achinike Bernard
Abstract
The Niger Delta is very strategic to the national economy of Nigeria because of the petroleum and natural gas reserves of the region which accounts for over 90% of Nigeria’s foreign earnings.
Unfortunately, the resources of the region have not translated into socio-economic prosperity for the people. On the contrary, resources exploitation has occasioned environmental degradation and consequential unemployment and poverty.
The aim of this paper was to examine the legal impacts of CSR on employment and empowerment in the region. The doctrinal research methodology was adopted. The paper found that employment of indigenes of host communities has often been for manual labour and temporary contract jobs which do not have any sustainable impacts.
Furthermore, empowerments are essentially ‘feeding-bottle’ schemes usually in the form of grants, soft loans skills acquisitions that the participants do not need or are not properly equipped to employ profitably after the training. Empowerments lack strategic and sustained approach.
This includes lack of basic infrastructure and facilities necessary to sustain the supposed empowerment. In addition, finance to set up the beneficiaries as self-reliant and support their growth in the long term is lacking.
The paper concluded that CSR in the region lacks a strategic long-term approach but is often executed as one-of gift. Moreover, it does not adequately take into consideration the needs of the people.
This is in addition to a lack of effective framework for monitoring and reporting on CSR initiatives. The cumulative ef ect is that CSR has failed to result in any sustainable long-term impacts for the people of the Niger Delta of Nigeria particularly in the areas of employment and empowerment.
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