COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE AREAS OF FOCUS OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY ACTIVITIES OF COMMERCIAL BANKS AND MANUFACTURING FIRMS IN NIGERIA

The study investigates comparatively the relationship between the areas of focus of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives of selected banks and manufacturing firms in Nigeria. This study took place in Lagos State, Nigeria. The research design used is the survey research design while the case study banks and manufacturing firms were selected through purposive sampling. Primary data were gathered through questionnaire from 216 and 205 respondents selected respectively from commercial banks and manufacturing firms from a total of 250 respondents selected from each sector. This gives 84.2% response rate. All the respondents selected from various companies were actively involved in CSR activities of their respective companies. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to examine the areas of focus of CSR activities of selected companies. The results of the study revealed a value of -0.73 for t-test and 0.58 for p value. This means that a significant difference cannot be found between the areas of focus of CSR activities of selected banks and manufacturing firms operating in Nigeria. The recommendation from this study is that corporate organisations should give adequate attention to their CSR activities to some strategic areas of focus like healthcare and wellness programme, education and skill development, socio-cultural and economic developments. These CSR activities eventually promote positive image of the organisations in the environment where they operate.