Crossing the borderline in strategic corporate philanthropy: Dangote and the construction of cement roads in Nigeria

Using the case of Nigeria's Dangote Group and an exploratory research technique, we critique CSR practices in a developing country context based on a three‐pillar model—traditional CSR, strategic CSR and strategic business engagements. Our paper makes a unique contribution by revealing how a company can transform its strategic CSR into strategic business engagements that permit it to circumvent public procurement laws and secure public contracts at non‐competitive terms. We show how, in weak institutional and regulatory contexts, strategic CSR could be turned to a tool for rent extraction and profit maximization. We advocate for regulatory measures that impose ex ante and ex post limits on the extent to which firms can go in integrating CSR into their normal business operations. Based on the outcomes from this important African case study, we illustrate and propose the strategic business engagement model as a new framework for analysing the social benefits of strategic CSR practices in developing countries.     

The child health effects of terrorism: evidence from the Boko Haram Insurgency in Nigeria

This study examines the effect of terrorism on height-for-age z-scores, weight-for-age z-scores, weight-for-height z-scores, stunting, and wasting. Using the Boko Haram Insurgency, it compares outcomes in Boko Haram high-active and low-active areas. A difference-in-difference and regression model identifies the extensive and intensive margin effects respectively. The study uses data from the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey and the Global Terrorism Database. The results suggest that the Boko Haram Insurgency reduces weight-for-age and weight-for-height z-scores and increases the probability of wasting. The evidence suggests that policies targeting healthcare services may mitigate the long-term impacts of the Boko Haram Insurgency on human capital production.     

Accounting and control in Barclays Bank (DCO): the lending to Africans episode

This paper analyses the accounting, control and operational consequences of a pre-independence experiment by Barclays Bank (DCO) in the British Nigerian colony to liberalize its credit policy towards Africans. This was partly an attempt to develop African business, an area previously neglected by foreign banks. The new policy also appeased Africans who believed that the colonial banks discriminated against them. This experiment resulted in 'alarming' bad debts and led to a reappraisal of the bank's accounting, control and operational procedures. The paper highlights the limitations of internal controls in an era of change.     

Marketing of banking services in Nigeria

This paper (which was originally presented at the 2001 World Services Congress in Hong Kong, 19–21 September) traces the origins of marketing in Nigerian banking and shows how different economic, social and political environments have influenced the marketing of financial services in Nigeria. It argues that the future of the banking market in Nigeria will, in the main, depend on the ongoing integration of the country into the global market. With the return of the international banks, multinational and foreign companies and missions are likely to favour such banks for their banking transactions. The implication of this is that banks with little or no foreign ownership structures will gradually be forced to concentrate on the indigenous market. Unless the government can put its house in order quickly and ensure a stable macroeconomic environment for economic development, it is likely that market forces will cause several of these indigenous banks to merge their activities or be absorbed by the big international banks.     

Equity in informal land delivery: Insights from Enugu, Nigeria

Mounting exclusionary forces have made the task of achieving equity in urban land delivery more elusive than it has ever been. Statistics show that, in practice, most land for urban development (especially that occupied by the poor) is supplied outside state regulatory frameworks and there is overwhelming evidence of the importance of secure access to land and housing to the livelihood strategies of poor urban households. This paper, therefore, explores the issue of equity in informal channels of land delivery by drawing from insights gained from a recently concluded DFID-funded research of informal land delivery processes and access to land for the poor in Enugu, Nigeria. It finds that escalating costs and the resistance of pre-capitalist elements (some aspects of traditional culture) have meant that informal channels of land delivery are increasingly failing to meet equity concerns in providing access to land in cities, and that poor city immigrants and other vulnerable groups, especially women, are particularly disadvantaged.     

Professional accounting development in Nigeria: threats from the inside and outside

Over the years several, sometimes conflicting, theories attempting to explain the development of professions have emerged. The “functionalist” and “interactionist” theories have since lost the spotlight to a more critical approach based on the Weberian concept of closure. Limitations in the concept and practice of this neo-Weberain concept have led to suggestions that research into the sociology of professions, should also include historical analyses of professionalism that capture historical specificities with the aim of generating theory that sees beyond “just massive historical variation” [Collins, R. (1990). Changing conceptions in the sociology of the profession. In R. Torstendahl, & M. Burrage, The formation of professions: Knowledge, state and strategy. London: Sage Publications]. Such research should also investigate the structural conditions under which the professionalisation process takes place [Johnson, T. (1977). The profession in the class structure. In R. Scase, Industrial society: Class, cleavage and control. London: George Allen and Unwin.]. In order to achieve this, there is the need to critically study the relationship of the State and the profession [Klegon, D. (1978). The sociology of professions: an emerging perspective. Sociology of Work and Occupations, 5, 3, 259–283.] and to document more extensively, the process, rather than the product, of closure [Chua, W. F., & Paullaos, C. (1993). Rethinking the profession-state dynamic: the case of the Victorian Charter Attempt, 1885–1906, Accounting, Organizations and Society, pp. 128–691; Chua, W. F., & Paullaos, C. (1998). The dynamics of “closure” amidst the construction of market, profession, empire and nationhood: an historical analysis of an Australian Accounting Association. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 23 (2), 155–187; Ramirez, C. (2001). Understanding social closure in its cultural context: accounting practitioners in France (1920–1939), Accounting, Organizations and Society.]. Such is the approach of this article, which focuses on the development of the accounting professions in Nigeria. It critically examines the profession/ State dynamics that have helped shape the outcome of the various episodes in the history of the accounting profession in Nigeria. An important influence in this dynamics is the nature of government in place (i.e. military or civilian).