Agha Ibiam
7 April 2008
Lagos — Corporate social responsibility is the strategy employed by organisations to impact the lives of people in their immediate environment.
Try as much as they can to resolve one problem, another crops up almost immediately.
Akai Efa is a community that is located on the outskirts of Calabar, Cross River State. It is about 30-kilometer drive to the capital city. Despite its remoteness the road leading to the village is tarred and named after MCC that constructed the one lane road. Both government workers and business men reside in the serene village.
Akai Efa is strategically located and that is why the community is being besieged by investors to see how they can harness the natural serene environment of the place and transform it to a resort village.
It takes about 15 minutes drive from the community to the TINAPA and almost the same minutes to Marine resort, both wonderful tourists' centers that are located at the heart of the ancient city of Calabar.
The village is said to have a population of less than 500 people. Palm and raffia wine tapping, animal hunting, farming, 'okada' business, amongst other businesses seem to be the major occupation of the villagers. Despite the remoteness of the village, motor-cycle riders ensure that both the rider and the passenger put on helmets.
According to Edem Obong, a private motorbike rider, and who is in his early 20s, the use of helmets by motorbike riders is a must. "Despite the remoteness of the place, we still use helmets. Defaulters pay N10, 000, while the cost of buying the helmet from the government is about N16, 000. So it pays most of the riders to purchase the helmets than being harassed and money extorted from them by the law enforcement agencies", he said.
The Akai Efa community, Mary Bassey explained, lacks secondary schools. This has led to some of the villagers to send their children to either neighbouring communities within Calabar metropolis. But to those who can afford to pay for private schools, they prefer their children to attend some of the private schools within the environment.
Apart from schools, the need for portable water is also another challenge to the community. This has resulted to some of the villagers looking for bore-hole water, than relying on the pipe-borne water which the people said is not fit for drinking. Another great challenge of the community is erosion, a natural disaster that has literally thrown the villagers' into unending sadness for years.
Enthused by the pains of Akai Efa community, and more so in a bid to create employment for the people of Cross River and Akwa Ibom States, the Chairman of TNT/IAS and Orange Groups of Companies, Mr. Josiah Chiedozie Okoye, decided to assist the community. In a trade by barter kind of business, Okoye's paramount concern to the community is to first and foremost tackle the erosion problem that has almost taken part of former Sophie Resort, now Orange Resort, the kind that is only found in the Carribean Islands. But embedded in the concept of establishing Orange Resort, is to satisfactorily cater to the leisure needs of tourists and those that might seek a place that offers the good life, with the culture of service as its hallmark.
Aside from that, Okoye said such an establishment will go a long way to providing succour and employment to the teaming graduates of the community and its environs. But bearing physical aesthetics, serenity, security and a perfect city-condition in mind, the resort, situated at the heart of Calabar, is as a result of its emerging status as Nigeria's hospitality and entertainment capital. "No other location would offer the kind of dream scenery which the management of Orange Resort seeks to restore to showcase to its esteemed customers", he said.
But other propelling motives that drove Okoye into locating the resort at Akai Efa, is to identify with TINAPA, which will resume operation in May. "We are looking for external locations to give our logistics experience. There is such historic accumulation of memories here, and there is need to revive it because of its natural advantages.
"There is so much need and demand to capture this environment because it stands on a world of its own. Over the last two years we have continued to invest. We hired a Chinese firm to tackle the problem of drainage and to build channels", Okoye said.
Apart from bringing a world class natural environment and facilities through Orange resort, Okoye had in time past contributed to the development of the entire Calabar municipality. His dogged and relentless pursuit of business excellence and belief that Nigerian companies can compete side by side with international companies, he ensured that the Fegno construct, one of the Okoye's conglomerates, had its finger in various Federal Government projects.
He was able to construct the Calabar and Enugu Prisons headquarters, several bank buildings, federal government college and the entire road networks in the State. He also extended his tentacles to Uyo in Akwa Ibom State, where he constructed the Labour office complex.
But had Okoye not acquired that two hectares of land at Akai Efa, perhaps, that portion of land and the major road leading to the community would have been gradually eroded. "Our plan is to beautify this place and recover the past glory of the resort, so that those who come here will be happy and relieve their memory. The plan is also to transform the place for it to compare with other tourist centers in the world", he said.
Okoye is not thinking of how to make fast money from a community that is already in need, rather he is concerned about how to make the villagers comfortable and relaxed by creating a haven for them in their own vicinity rather than traveling out to look for succour and pleasure.
The resort, on completion, will have a lot of world class facilities. These, he said, include swimming pools, cybercafé, night clubs, sport/fitness club structure, commercial retail space, bakery, grocery stores and grand multi-purpose hall. But the beauty of all these is that most of the villagers will be employed as workers, Okoye said.
Okoye is also determined to create more jobs for the people. Within the shortest possible time, he promised to establish Orange line, which is an off-shoot of the resort. The new phase of business, which is basically on transportation business will provide executive ride that will be conveying people within Calabar metropolis.
The transport business will also service other neighbouring towns such as Port Harcourt, Aba, Uyo, Abakaliki, Enugu, Obudu, Markurdi and Abuja.
"We will be flooding Calabar with about 20 cars from Lagos. There will be a schedule transportation system, and we are ready to do something superior by taking transportation to greater heights in this country", he promised.
But in line with the organisation's traditional business, Okoye revealed that he is working on a major scheme to develop Nigerian highways with Orange Resorts that will be located in many towns. This, according to him, will serve as resort centers for most travelers who atimes are stranded as a result of vehicle breakdown or other reasons.
"We have gotten license from Edo State Government to operate Orange city hub at Okada. Also, I do believe that very soon, Cross River, Abuja, Kogi, Anambra, Abia and other states of the federation will soon process our application for city hubs", he said.
Recently, TNT International/IAS Cargo Airline, initiated a World Food programme designed to fighting hunger by feeding school children and to alleviate poverty.
The programme is a yearly event and money raised during the occasion is distributed worldwide to charitable homes, while also being used to sponsor delinquent children. TNT/IAS, which is the nation's first fully indigenous courier company, has grown to become one of the most formidable industries today. The company has acquired an aircraft to ensure service delivery and is comparable with that of others anywhere in the world.
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