Does CSR contribute to the development of rural young people in cultural tourism of sub-Saharan Africa? Evidence from the Niger Delta in Nigeria

ABSTRACT

We assess the impact of a new corporate social responsibility (CSR) model of multinational oil companies on the development of rural young people (RYP) in cultural tourism in the Niger Delta of Nigeria. Six hundred RYP were sampled across the rural Niger Delta region. Using the logit model, results indicate that RYP have remained widely excluded from the General Memorandum of Understandings (GMoUs) interventions in cultural tourism projects due to the traditional beliefs that cultural affairs are prerogatives of elders, a caveat to the youths. This implies that if the traditions of the communities continue to hinder direct participation of the RYP from the GMoUs cultural tourism project interventions, achieving equality and cultural change would be limited in the region. The findings suggest that since handicrafts are key cultural products consumed in the tourism industry, GMoUs can play a role in helping to create an appropriate intervention structure that will be targeted towards youth empowerment in the area of traditional handicraft. This can be achieved if the Cluster Development Boards would focus on integrating rural young artisans into local tourism value chains, ensuring they benefit economically from the sector, and creating space for the views of RYP indigenous handicrafts knowledge.

KEYWORDS:

• Inequality
• cultural tourism
• handicrafts
• corporate social responsibility
• multinational oil companies
• rural young people
• sub-Saharan Africa

Acknowledgements

The authors are indebted to the editor and reviewers for constructive comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Joseph Ikechukwu Uduji holds Ph.D (Marketing), Ph.D (Public Administration), M.Sc (Marketing), M.Sc (Public Relations), MBA (Business Administration) and MPA (Public Administration) from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and Enugu Campuses. While he lectures business and development courses in the University of Nigeria, he is also a Visiting Professor to the Catholic University of Cameroon, Bamenda. His current research interests include impact assessment of multinationals corporate social responsibility in host communities of developing countries.

Elda Nduka Okolo-Obasi holds B.Sc (Agricultural Economics) and M.Sc (Development Studies) from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and Enugu Campuses. He is a doctoral student and research fellow in the Institute for Development Studies, University of Nigeria. His current research interests include economic analysis of multinationals corporate social responsibility impact in host communities of developing countries.

Simplice Anutechia Asongu holds a PhD from Oxford Brookes University and is currently the Lead Economist and Director of the African Governance and Development Institute (Yaoundé, Cameroon). He is also a: Senior Research Fellow at the Africa Growth Institute (Cape Town, South Africa); PhD Supervisor at Covenant University (Ota, Nigeria) and Midlands State University (Gweru, Zimbabwe); MBA Supervisor at Management College of Southern Africa (Durban, South Africa) and Research Associate at the University of Cape Town (Cape Town, South Africa), University of South Africa (Pretoria, South Africa), University of Buea (Buea, Cameroon) and Oxford Brookes University (Oxford, UK). He is also Editor of the Africa Growth Agenda and Associate Editor in some journals including the Journal of Economic Surveys and the Journal of African Business.