Mining sector underplays CSR: report

Robust growth in the mining sector is not reflected in the growth of sector’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects as the new report ranks mining one of the activities offering the lowest CSR.

Even after recording higher growth in attracting investment, the mining sector has not taken the lead in initiating CSR projects in recent years, according to the 2012 Tanzania investment report released on Friday jointly by Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC), Bank of Tanzania (BoT) and National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The report shows that mining sector spent the lowest in CSR at an average of $0.2 million between 2008 and 2009 while manufacturing topped the sector with $3.6 million.

Commenting on the report, a senior lecturer of economics and business studies at Mzumbe University-Dar es Salaam campus, Dr Honest Ngowi, said that the mining sector although was booming but its investors were not bound by law and policy to increase CSR projects.

“You know the Corporate Social Responsibility programmes are based on charity. These are not mandatory,” said Dr Ngowi.

He also pointed out that the hydrocarbons exploration boom in the oil and gas sub-sector cannot attract many CSR projects because investors were yet to report benefits at that stage. 

“The results showed that the manufacturing activity had the highest contribution to CSR in 2009 as it accounted for about 30.5 per cent of the average amount spent on CSR in 2008 and 2009, followed by wholesale and retail trade activity. The least contributing activity was mining and quarrying,” reads part of the report.

The ranking data outlined by the report are as follows; manufacturing ranks the first followed by wholesale and retail (16.5 per cent), construction (12.3 per cent), (health 11.5 per cent), agriculture (6.8 per cent), administrative activities (6.8 per cent), accommodation (4.3), ICT (4.2 per cent), Transport and Storage (2.6 per cent), other services (1.9 per cent) and mining and quarrying 1.3 per cent).
Source: The Citizen, reported by Ludger Kasumuni from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

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