The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Seth Twum- Akwaboah, has assured of his outfit’s resolve and commitment towards championing the course of sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Ghana.
According to him, the association, having embraced the concept and principles of CSR and sustainability, has over the years supported efforts by Centre for CSR West Africa in its quest to promote CSR and sustainability within West Africa, particularly Ghana.
“CSR activities have been very enormous over the years and AGI will continue to support CSR and sustainability efforts in Ghana. We are happy that our members have supported this programme,” he stressed.
Mr. Twum- Akwaboah made these remarks at the National CSR and Sustainability Conference, 2023 held in Accra under the theme: Shaping the future of businesses sustainably, post- COVID 19. The 10th edition of the event was organised by the Centre for CSR West Africa.
The Centre’s aim among other things is to advocate for socially-responsible and sustainable practices among stakeholders, especially players in private sector.
He further noted that it was imperative that companies and institution make provisions toward CSR activities to not only support the communities within which they operate but also their workers as well as the environment: “Today’s business requires that we have high level of responsibility toward our community, people we work with and our environment”.
“We [AGI] have been monitoring the budgets of our companies and it will interest you to know that every year they make provisions toward CSR activities to support their workers, the environment as well as communities that they operate in, so it is very important that we encourage this,” he added.
He furthermore highlighted the need for companies to be more responsible by incorporating sustainable manufacturing practices and CSR into their programmes, adding that “the more responsible you are the more sustained your profit would be”.
Linking sustainability to profitability, he indicated that the European Union (EU) is coming out with a new law requiring traceability of goods to their suppliers, requiring that there are no child labour issues associated with the goods and that they are getting them from the right sources and observing all the environmental regulations.
“The companies in Europe are struggling to see which companies they can work with in Africa and other places where they source their materials. So it will get to a point if you don’t adopt some of these strategies you cannot even do business,” he elaborated.
“We have a number of programmes that we have been organising and implementing to support businesses in this area. Notable among them is Ghana Recycling Initiative (GRIPE) by private enterprises who have come together to initiate a program that helps with the collection of plastic waste so that it can be recycled. Before then there was no recycling plant for plastic bottles and other plastic waste materials,” he revealed.
While encouraging companies to go the renewable energy way in order to reduce their carbon emissions, he noted that AGI runs an Energy Service Centre which promotes renewable energy and energy efficiency among its members.
“Some companies that have enrolled onto these services are getting a lot for free. Although no longer free, it is still highly subsidized and we are encouraging companies to take advantage of some of these opportunities so that they go renewable in addition to whatever they are getting from the grid,” he added.
“We have other projects with another German organization that is supporting the promotion of solar usage within the cocoa processing sector and then another one together with the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) where we are training students in the area of environmental management and sustainability, Mr. Twum- Akwaboah noted.
The Centre for CSR West Africa is a leading corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability strategy development, policy advocacy, public relations, events and communications agency in the West African sub-region. The Centre develops CSR strategy for large and small corporations.
