Humanitarian affairs minister Bernard Doro has urged corporate organisations to provide tangible corporate social responsibility initiatives to communities to reduce poverty.

Mr Doro made the remark at a multi-stakeholder engagement and community visits to Eastern Obolo in Akwa Ibom, organised by International Alert Nigeria and the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs.

The minister said his on-the-spot visit to the communities in the area provided a clearer insight into how the people were living and assured that interventions would align with their needs.

The minister appealed for corporate social responsibility to have a direct impact on lifting people out of poverty.

He said poverty reduction in communities should not be left to the government alone, urging companies to invest directly in poverty programmes in the communities where they operate.

He appealed to the companies to stop treating CSR as a line item and instead as a commitment to real families in their host communities.

“Direct resources toward skills training for the youth I met today. Direct resources toward clean water that a mother does not need to walk miles to find. Direct resources toward classrooms where a child’s prospects are not diminished by a roof that leaks or is altogether absent,” Mr Doro said.

He called for a partnership to ensure that a child from Eastern Obolo could become a nurse, an engineer,  a teacher or a business owner, because ”those with means choose to act, not just observe”.

Mr Doro said the ministry, through the One Humanitarian, One Poverty Response System, would continue to coordinate with the Akwa Ibom government and any willing partner to answer such a call.

(NAN)