Coca-Cola partners Sterling One Foundation on Africa social impact summit
By EDU ABADE, Business Editor
The Coca-Cola Company has restated its commitment to regional inclusive development of the African continent through its Africa Social Impact Summit (ASIS) in partnership with Sterling One Foundation.
The two-day hybrid event with the theme: Rethink, Rebuild, Recover- Accelerating Growth Of The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which was held at the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja, attracted executives and partners focused on advancing inclusive growth on the continent, as it provided a viable platform for dialogue on regional inclusive development aimed at stimulating private sector and impact investors to shape market-led solutions for the SDGs with a focus on climate solutions, health, agriculture, renewable energy, WASH and circular economy.
The sponsors expressed optimism that the summit would help fashion out functional frameworks for the private sector and impact investors to boost Africa’s regional comprehensive development on the principles of the SDGs 2030.
In her keynote address, Vice President, Public Affairs, Communications and Sustainability for Africa, Patricia Obozuwa, highlighted the company’s continued focus on creating a better shared future for host communities of its world-class beverages through acceleration of on-the-ground impact of its initiatives and interventions, leveraging the collaborative investments from The Coca-Cola Foundation and other partners.
She said: “Earlier this year, we launched ‘JAMII’, our Africa sustainability platform, which houses our existing and new sustainability initiatives. JAMII embodies the true spirit of ‘community’ and continues to expand on our past accomplishments with key focus on water, stewardship, economic empowerment of women, as well as youth and waste management.
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While we continue to drive the achievement of the SDGs through our signature programs under JAMII, there remains a need to scale our efforts significantly leveraging collective action and impact hence the summit objective.
Stressing that the whole world will benefit from keeping faith with the SDGs, she, however, maintained that Africa’s special disposition makes the continent’s specific needs dire, which was why Coca-Cola had refocused with the launch of JAMII to enhance the impact of its social investments in Africa.
“To achieve success, there is an urgent need for effective and coordinated partnerships and collaboration as Africa has the potential to be at the heart of a sustainable future for both the continent and the world. I assure you of our continued commitment at The Coca-Cola Company, as we remain key contributors in driving the 2030 agenda,” she stated.
Chief Executive Officer of Sterling Bank, Abubakar Suleiman, commended the zeal for a novel approach to attaining the SDGs on the African continent and expressed hope that the ideas would translate to action for reducing poverty, which he noted, was the main goal of the ASIS.
He said: “This Summit presents a good opportunity for Sterling Bank and other partners to start intensifying efforts.”
The Summit brought together stakeholders from across the African continent and provided a platform for the analysis of several historical records on sustainable development with a view to stimulating a marked shift in the general understanding of development in the context of human development, as against mere economic growth.
