Corporate social responsibility in Nigeria and multinational corporations in the fight against human trafficking in oil-producing communities

ABSTRACT

In Nigeria, human trafficking is a hidden crime, driven by the current economic situation of the country. The Nigerian government has demonstrated significant efforts to combating human trafficking in the country by creating the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP). The incidents of human trafficking in the Nigeria’s oil-producing communities have remained among the highest in the country and higher than the national average. The objective of this investigation was to determine the impact of a new corporate social responsibility (CSR) model of multinational oil companies (MOCs) on the fight against human trafficking in the host communities. A total of one thousand, two hundred households were sampled across the rural communities of Niger Delta. Results from the use of a combined propensity score matching and logit model indicated that MOCs hold the key to combating human trafficking by fostering effective partnership across different sectors, if the highest CSR priority is assigned to reducing incidents of human trafficking in the oil-producing communities. Embracing the fight against human trafficking should form the foundation of General Memorandum of Understanding (GMoUs) practice, which in turn will provide the enabling environment for more widespread responsible business. As most of the human trafficking in the Niger Delta is exploited by relatives or friends; MOCs should involve traditional and religious leaders in the fight and set up GMoU clusters interventions specifically for anti-trafficking agencies including NAPTIP, the police and immigration to support their actions and improve efficiency.

KEYWORDS:

• Corporate social responsibility
• multinational corporations
• oil-producing communities
• human trafficking
• propensity score matching
• Nigeria

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.

ORCID

Simplice A. Asongu http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5227-5135

Notes

1 OMGPLP = operation and maintenance of gas power line and plant; LGBS = loan/grant for business support; PE = peaceful engagement; SL = street light and lighting; FFS = fishery and farm support; CRLES = construction of road leading to exploration sites.

2 RU30 = children and relatives under 30 years living with other people; COSISH = children out of school and in street hawking; KWRL = knowledge of where relatives are living; WGRB = willingness to get relatives back; SKBRI = sure of the kind of activities relatives are involved in.