Analysis of rural women’s access to financial services and corporate social responsibility in Nigeria’s Niger delta region

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives of multinational oil companies (MOCs) in Nigeria. Its special focus is to investigate the impact of the global memorandum of understanding (GMoU) on enhancing rural women’s financial inclusion in the areas of access to credit, insurance, propensity of women to save and the widening of economic opportunities in the Niger Delta. A total of 800 rural women were sampled across the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Results from the use of a combined propensity score matching and logit model indicate that the GMoU model has made significant impact on closing the gaps in financial services, thereby removing women’s constraints on their efforts to enhance their financial literacy. The results also confirm that innovative delivery channels and social networks of the GMoUs have reduced some costs in the areas of access to credit, insurance, propensity to save and the widening of economic opportunities of rural women in the oil host communities. However, a further look at the rural women’s participation in the CSR activities using SCOTDI shows that even though the involvement of the women is appreciable, it is insignificant when compared with their male counterparts.

Keywords:

• financial services
• rural women
• corporate social responsibility
• multinational oil companies
• Nigeria
• sub-Saharan Africa

Acknowledgement

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

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/20421338.2023.2296673.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joseph Ikechukwu Uduji

Professor Joseph Ikechukwu Uduji holds a PhD (Marketing), a PhD (Public Administration), a MSc (Marketing), a MSc (Public Relations), a MBA (Business Administration) and a MPA (Public Administration) and is currently the Head, Department of Marketing, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Whilst 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 social justice, social responsibility and the inequality nexus in developing countries.

Elda Nduka Okolo-Obasi

Mr Elda Nduka Okolo-Obasi holds a BSc (Agricultural Economics) from the Federal University of Technology Owerri, and a MSc (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. He is also a research fellow in the Development Strategy Centre (A private Think Tank based in Enugu, Nigeria). His current research interests include economic and social impact evaluation of policies and projects of the public and private sectors in developing countries.