DHL, Sahara Energy, GTbank, Shell, including Chevron, MTN, Stanbic IBTC, Friesland Campina, United Bank for Africa, Total, Samsung, NestOil group, Lafarge, Etisalat, Lapo Microfinance, BATN, Multichoice Africa and Keystone bank have entered amongst others.
The awards, which is in its 10th year and only recently opened the platform to receive entries from across Africa, also recorded entries from organisations in East & Southern Africa such as Safaricom and Investec.
However, due to request from a lot organisations in Nigeria and other parts of Africa for an extension of the deadline to enable more organisations participate, the organisers have decided to extend the deadline to Wednesday, 10 August,2016 for entries from Nigeria and Friday, 19 August 2016 for entries from other parts of Africa.
Previous winning companies are leading the way as the innovate change-makers on the continent and their contributions to development – both social and economic are critical elements in the future of the continent.
In 2015, Exxon Mobil won in the overall winner category as the most socially responsible company for 2015 due to their community involvement and development work across Nigeria.
The company worked with supply chain communities especially in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria to promote malaria, HIV/AIDs prevention initiatives in schools and peer groups.
Exxon Mobil organized vendor seminar and outreaches to tackle malaria, participated in monthly and quarterly state malaria activities, routine monitoring and mentoring of facility staff, conducted home visits and mosquito net hangings in vendor homes and introduced mobile card reader platforms and training of health workers to combat malaria.
An innovative campaign that was also rewarded was Etisalat for its Etisalat Prize for Literature — a pan African prize celebrating first time writers of published fiction books. The prize serves as a platform for the discovery of new creative talent out of the continent and promotes the burgeoning publishing industry in Africa. Winners are offered scholarships and mentoring opportunities with established African writers.
Samsung scooped the award for the best company in youth focus: For launching a digital village in Oban community, Akamkpa local government of Cross River State. The digital village project was launched to provide innovative healthcare and educational needs for the community, with the aim of improving health outcomes, strengthening education delivery and increasing the economic potential of the community.
Companies can enter in a range of award categories as well as based on their size. The awards are adjudicated by an international panel of experts including Indira Kartallozi (founder Chrysalis Family Future based in the UK), Rob Okiyi (Standards Org of Nigeria), Tunde Arogunmati ( president - Nigeria Britain Chamber of Commerce), Dr Veronica Broomes ( British sustainability expert), Deborah Leipziger (American and author of Corporate Responsibility code book and SA8000 and worked intensively with the UN amongst others).
Businesses of all sizes are encouraged to enter.
The SERAs organising committee also announced Red Flag South Africa and Prospectus Capital Kenya as organising partners for the 2016 edition of the awards.
Red Flag’s is one of South Africa’s leading marketing communications consultancies with a reputation as leaders in the lifestyle-communications space is based on their years of successful campaigns for some of South Africa’s hottest brands, events, personalities and products, and is jointly managed by Lara Preston and Caroline Hillary.
Prospectus Capital serves the East African region and is a research driven project management and business consulting company providing niche strategic business solutions through various media platforms. The company led by Faith Tindi has championed adoption of CSR and sustainability amongst businesses in Kenya.
The awards ceremony will be held on Saturday, 5 November 2016 in Lagos, Nigeria.