The former Provost of the College of Humanities at the University of Ghana, Prof Daniel Frimpong Ofori, says although Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a vital resource for organisations, it lacks effective coordination in Ghana.

CSR is a self-regulating business model that helps a company be socially accountable to itself, its stakeholders, and the public.

According to the Professor, most businesses do not have a CSR director although the role is essential.

• Read also: Annoh-Dompreh pushes for Corporate Social Responsibility legislation

Speaking on JoyNews’ AM Show on August 1, he said, “Every organisation, you’ll be sure to meet a finance director. Show me your CSR director. You’ll be sure to meet a marketing director, IT, HR, productions. If they are not directors, they are managers. Where is your CSR manager?”

“As soon as you don’t functionalise it, CSR becomes an orphan. You only think about them every now and then, like a dream. Some of us, we can go five years without dreaming. It means there is no CSR in our lives," he said.

• Read also: Invest more in CSR projects to empower communities – Businesses urged

According to Prof Ofori, when CSR is implemented, it leads to tangible benefits for organisations.

He stated that many companies only engage with CSR superficially, treating it as an expense rather than a valuable investment.

“What makes you think that the finance person is the most important person, then marketing because you have to sell, then the HR because you have people, so by the time you start operating, CSR becomes an afterthought and that is the first mistake we make.”

“CSR must be on board because we are going to say, I have a mission, I have a vision. The next thing should be CSR in your strategic planning formulations. CSR should be at the top because you want to see how you are going to affect societies. CSR is essentially an interaction between the organisation and society. So long as we have organisations, we are going to have CSR but the question is how?”