Tobacco regulation in Nigeria and corporate social responsibility

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility has become an increasingly significant concept. The rising number of literature has sought to provide an understanding of CSR from various industrial and theoretical perspectives. However, CSR in contentious industries from a legal and African context remains limited. The research augments this position by resting on the argument that one way of solving the governance gap or institutional void is to embrace a regulatory framework by government and business. To this end, the research examines the adequacy of the tobacco regulatory framework at regulating the activities of transnational tobacco corporations (TTCs), and to establish what role, if any, CSR could serve to mitigate any potential gap in the regulatory framework. The approach taken is an analysis of relevant legal instruments regulating the tobacco industry and CSR engagement in the tobacco industry in Nigeria. The findings reveal the limitations of the regulatory framework, including the issue of enforcement and corruption. It underscores the complementary role of CSR as a useful tool in the tobacco control framework so far TTCs consider a recommitment to the ‘social contract’ of corporate social responsibility. The findings and recommendations could enable the tobacco control framework, contribute to the CSR discourse, inform practice, and improve policy decision-making.