Coca-Cola, NBC shine at 2018 SERAS Awards

Coca-Cola Nigeria Ltd and its sister company, the Nigerian Bottling Company Ltd (NBC) have emerged winners at the 12th Annual Sustainability, Enterprise Responsibility (SERAS) Awards. Coca-Cola won the best company in the Good Health and Well-being Category.

The company was recognised for its Safe Birth Initiative (SBI), aimed at tackling the high rate of maternal and newborn deaths in Nigeria.

The SBI is a partnership with the Federal Ministry of Health, the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals (MDGs) and Medshare International Inc., a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO).

SBI is focused on supporting doctors and nurses to achieve successful birth outcomes by strengthening the capacity of target public hospitals in three critical areas – the procurement of vital maternal and neonatal medical equipment and supplies to enable safe deliveries and post-delivery emergency care.

Others are training biomedical engineering technicians to improve equipment maintenance and uptime; and reactivating a large stock of abandoned medical equipment wasting away in public hospitals.

The first phase of the initiative is under implementation and will provide 15 major public hospitals recommended by the Federal Ministry of Health with hospital equipment, kits and supplies with a conservative value of about $10.8 million (about N3.8 billion).

The SBI is expected to ultimately improve the affordability and accessibility of maternity health care services in the beneficiary hospitals.

On receiving the award, the Public Affairs and Communications Manager, Coca-Cola Nigeria Ltd, Nwamaka Onyemelukwe, said: “Awards like these encourage us to do more and strengthen our resolve to provide solutions to the various challenges facing the communities in which we serve.

“We thank our project partners and dedicate this award to the brave medical professionals in hospitals across Nigeria who work tirelessly to ensure that mothers and their babies go back home alive.”

L-R: Emeka Mba, Community Affairs Manager Coca-Cola Nigeria Ltd and Nwamaka Onyemelukwe, Public Affairs and Communications Manager, Coca-Cola, Nigeria, with the award to Coca-Cola Nigeria for best company in the Good Health and Well-being category, at the 12th SERAS Awards held in Lagos.

The Nigerian Bottling Company for its part emerged as winner in the best company in ‘Gender Equality and Women Empowerment’ category.

NBC was declared the winner ahead of other multinationals and blue-chip companies nominated in the category including 9mobile, Access Bank Plc, iSON, Shell Petroleum Development Company and Union Bank Plc. The company was also nominated for the category of ‘Best in Education’.

According to the award organisers, the Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC) Limited was adjudged the best in gender equality and women empowerment for its outstanding achievement in promotion of gender equity amongst its workforce and laudable women empowerment initiatives.

Commenting on the award, NBC’s Legal, Public Affairs and Communications Director, Mrs. Sade Morgan, said, “We are incredibly honoured to have our values and efforts recognised with this award. At Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC) Limited, we firmly believe that our business can only be as strong as the communities in which we operate and our people. In recent years, this has led us to bring to life, projects that advance the UN SDG aimed at achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls. We are inspired to achieve even greater things in 2019.

“Our initiatives such as Lady Mechanic Initiative (LMI) and the Educating Nigerian Girls in New Enterprise (ENGINE) project have yielded huge benefits to the society and positively impacted over 21,000 women over the years.”

Recently, to tackle the barriers that prevent women entrepreneurs from succeeding in the marketplace, the company has partnered with the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) and Coca-Cola Nigeria Ltd, to empower 1,000 women in Lagos State with trainings in financial literacy and business skills, as well as start-up capital to enable their establishment as entrepreneurs. All these are part of The Coca-Cola 5by20 initiative, the company’s global commitment to enable the economic empowerment of five million women across the company’s value chain by 2020.

The SERAS-CSR Awards Africa is an annual project, which aims to promote as well as raise awareness about the roles organisation plays with emphasis on their responsibility towards stakeholders and social development of Africa.

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