press conference by african business leaders on 2006 Bending the arc summit

The private sector had a key role to play in Africa’s future development, but safeguards were needed to ensure that developing countries shared in the profits from business generated on their soil, representatives of the African private sector said at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.

They had gathered as part of the 2006 summit of Bending the Arc, a programme designed by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) to engage the business community in developing and accelerating the continent’s attainment of the Millennium Development Goals.

Asked to discuss the potentially negative effects that companies could have on development, especially in light of the recent dumping of deadly toxic waste in Côte d’Ivoire, Firmino Mucavele, Chief Executive of NEPAD, described that incident as an abuse of corporate social responsibility, saying that it became possible when an undeveloped country lacked the institutional capacity to verify whether all corporations were following procedures, rules and codes.

Responding to a question as to why many of NEPAD’s activities were not widely known in Africa, he said it was a slow process, but noted that 23 countries were now in the midst of changing their investment policies.  “We are advancing, not at a rate we would like to, but advancing”, he said, adding, “We are now in Uganda, very silently solving the problem.  We are in Côte d’Ivoire, we are in Chad, in Sudan, already in Mozambique, in Angola, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  Things are moving.  That’s NEPAD in action.”

In response to a question about how countries could use corporate taxation to distribute income in a more democratic manner, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, Executive President of the NEPAD Business Group and Chairman of the African Business Round Table, said that process was happening incrementally.

“Certainly you would not say it is doing very well”, he pointed out.  The private sector was continuously looking at the possibility of fulfilling its responsibility –- not only paying taxes but also sharing with the community, exploiting what needed to be exploited and sharing the profits.

Also attending the press conference was Yvonne Muthien, spokesperson for Coca-Cola Africa, who said tax contributions were one aspect of good corporate citizenship.  “The virtuous cycle in that equation is that taxation and greater investment go hand in hand”, she added, noting that Coca-Cola committed 2 per cent of its pre-tax profits to corporate social investment under the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation.

She said it was important to “ring-fence” a percentage of profits for social investment in order to create a basis of mutual sustainability so that business success could, in turn, be tied into the sustainability of communities.

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For information media • not an official record