Africa offers a great payoff for Coca-Cola. The brand known for its sometimes cheesy, sometimes inspirational tag lines, taps into the past and the present pulse of the continent. Its ‘we are one Kumbaya’ images resonate with the African ethos of Ubuntu.
So too does the narrative that anything is possible, which is captured by the Coke Side of Life advertisement campaign. Both messages are consistent with the image makeover Africa is enjoying, off the back of its status as the world’s second-fastest growing region.
For a company that probably receives more bad press than Walmart, especially for its less-than-savory business practices, it is important for Coca-Cola to be seen getting it right on the continent.
Dr. Susan Mboya Kidero, recently appointed to head up the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation, which is part of the company’s philanthropic arm, is a perfect fit for Coke.
Not only is she a cheerleader for the multinational, she is an ardent believer in uplifting communities. Careful to avoid the negative reputation that often accompanies corporates operating in developing countries, Kidero neatly sidesteps the limitations of charity in a world where philanthropy is under pressure to be more than just a handout.
“I live and breathe sustainability. Whatever I do, it needs to live. I don’t like the word charity,” she explains.
Kidero joined Coca-Cola in 2008, after 14 years at consumer goods giant Procter &amp; Gamble in the United States. Initially she was appointed as the general manager of Coca-Cola South Africa, a top-10 market for the company, which brings in more than $800 million in annual revenue. During her tenure, Kidero managed to increase growth, which had been in decline, and saw Coke participate successfully as a corporate partner in the FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
If her childhood nostalgia about carefully crafted Coke branding is anything to go by, it makes sense that Kidero ended up working for the world’s most recognizable brand. It also helps that, unlike many parents, Kidero’s mother did not tell her that the fizzy drink would make her fat or cause her teeth to fall out.
“I didn’t have a negative perception. I actually grew up associating it with fun. We didn’t have (Coke) every day, and so when we did, it was generally because company was coming over and we were all going to have a lot of fun,” says Kidero, smiling.
“We once asked (at a workshop): what is your favorite memory of Coke, or any of our products? And I said: for me, it is when we were growing up, Coke came in glass and it would clink. And whenever we would hear that we would think, oh we are going to have a fun day today! That sound is still a very positive sound.”
As an executive of the multinational, Kidero takes her role as brand ambassador to heart. She says heading up the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation is a logical extension of being involved in women’s empowerment, as both are about improving lives. Kidero’s phil-anthropy is also not small change. She, like her company, operates in the big league.
Besides leading the foundation’s philanthropic activities in Africa, Kidero also spearheads the company’s initiative to economically empower five million women worldwide by 2020. Known as the 5BY20 program, it provides finance to women who want to start a business linked to Coke, such as retailing or recycling. So far Kidero has raised more than $116 million in funding for the initiative.
She also guided Coca-Cola in forging a $100 million partnership with the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, to provide women entrepreneurs in Eurasia and Africa with easier access to finance.
At the foundation, Kidero’s port-folio is not limited to entrepreneurship; she also focuses on water, health and education, the most pressing needs of African communities.
Back in the day, Coke stuck to conventional charity-based philanthropy. But as non-governmental organiz-ations began pushing for more sustainable ways of assisting the poor, big companies like Coke could not afford to be caught napping. The multi-national caught on quickly, and so did its corporate responsibility programs.
“We said: we need a more focused way of doing this. Our best way of doing this is by empowering the community. How do we do this? Whatever we do, the initiative becomes the res-ponsibility of the community.
“So the foundation came about bec-ause we were trying to consolidate all the different parties that were doing charity work. We said: if we bring all of that together, we will be even more powerful. The biggest thing was putting a strategy in place that was going to be sustainable,” she explains.
Kidero believes philanthropy is vital for Coca-Cola because the company cannot thrive if the communities in which it operates do not thrive. She says Coke chooses projects to invest in based on their relevance for both its overall business and for the community concerned.
In 2013, the foundation spent just under $11 million on projects – 63% went to water, 33% to health and 4% to youth development. Kidero says it is planning to spend a similar amount in 2014.
Providing water access and preserving reservoirs consume the bulk of funding for Coke’s projects. Its goal is to replenish every drop of water it uses during the manufacturing process. This of course is because the company has been at the center of several disputes with environmental groups over conserving scarce resources.
The company is often criticized for its high water consumption in regions where water is scarce. In 2006, campaign group War on Want accused Coca-Cola of drinking India dry. Farmers in Ragasthan were unable to irrigate their fields after the company built a bottling plant in the area. Also in India, a Coke plant in Kerala was forced to close down after it allegedly contaminated local water supplies.
In 2008, the multinational set targets to improve its water efficiency by 20%. In 2011, it used 293.3 billion lit-ers of water to make 135 billion liters of product, giving it a water-use ratio of 2.16 liters per liter of product.
In Africa, where the lack of clean drinking water is a real concern, the company has been involved in 42 projects in 27 countries to reduce, rec-
ycle and replenish water supplies.
The Replenish Africa Initiative (Rain) is backed by a $30 million commitment from the Coca-Cola Company and other donors. It aims to provide more than two million people in Africa with access to drinking water by 2015. Kidero is planning to bring additional partners on board so that Rain becomes a $60 million initiative.
On the health front, malaria and HIV are a big focus for the foundation.
“In (South Africa’s) Eastern Cape, we are working with (NGO) Africare on a soup-to-nuts complete HIV prevention and treatment program. What we are trying to do there is create a model where we can actually show that over time we (reduce HIV)… We can then take it to government found-ations and say, ‘this model works, it has been validated’,” Kidero says.
The foundation also pumps money into education on the continent through initiatives that improve teachers’ skills.
Over and above her professional responsibilities, Kidero has her own fund. The Zawadi Africa Educational Fund provides young African women from disadvantaged backgrounds with scholarships to Ivy League universities. To date it has awarded 230 scholarships, valued at more than $45 million.
“I believe Africa is special, even with all our challenges. Africa has given me my identity. Africa has given me my confidence. I have a huge extended family; that is how we are in Africa… Africa is in full Technicolor. If you go elsewhere, it is muted.”

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For a better part of the 1990s and the early 2000s, the mere mention of the name Sierra Leone conjured up images of amputees, brutal execution, abandoned children and fleeing refugees.
It is estimated that between 1991 and 2001—a mere 30 years after gaining independence from Britain—more than 50 000 people died in Sierra Leone and over two million were displaced in neighboring countries as refugees. Their country had fallen into the wrong hands of military juntas that had no regard whatsoever for human life, the constitution and accompanying freedoms.
So, few believed the optimism of African Union leaders, and United Nations’ Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who asserted that “a key benchmark for peace” would indeed be achieved on November 17, 2012, the day the six–million-people West African nation successfully took to the polls to elect a president, parliamentarians and local councilors.
Notwithstanding a few eyebrow-raising moments—among them the main opposition’s initial refusal to accept the outcome of the election—Sierra Leoneans have since shown a determination to put one of Africa’s most deadly civil wars behind them, and are now rolling up their sleeves getting ready for reconciliation, national cohesion, infrastructure reconstruction and economic development.
Some skeptics still doubt whether the mineral-rich country has put its past behind it and is now officially open for business. They will get their answer from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), who, following a staff mission to Sierra Leone towards the end of last year, found that economic growth had in fact already “strengthened in recent years, driven by expansion in agriculture, services and construction activities. Real GDP growth increased from 3.2% in 2009 to 6% in 2011. The coming on stream of iron ore production in late 2011 is expected to boost growth and exports significantly in 2012 and beyond. Inflationary pressures have trended downwards since mid-2011, aided by a sharp fall in non-food inflation, a tight monetary policy stance, and stability in the exchange rate. The external position is set to benefit from increased mining exports and reduced iron ore-related imports.”
On a continent that is fast getting global investors drooling, but frustrating them equally by making it tough to do business, Sierra Leone is among those countries that are trying to act fast to rectify that problem.
The recently released Doing Business 2013 report, published by the World Bank and its subsidiary, the International Finance Corporation, finds Sierra Leone to have improved its “ease of doing business” record, from number 148 in 2012 to 140 this year, out of a total of 185 economies surveyed.
But that’s not to say its all hunky dory. As the World Bank observes, “in spite of its remarkable strides and reforms since the war ended in 2002, problems of poor infrastructure—including roads and energy—low capacity, youth unemployment, high maternal and infant mortality, widespread rural impoverishment, impact of the global economic downturns, and lapses in public financial management and governance still persist.
“There is also the daunting challenge of enhancing transparency in managing the country’s vast natural resources,” World Bank economists say.
Following “candid and constructive discussions” with Sierra Leonean decision makers, IMF officials write: “The medium-term prospects are favorable. However, they are subject to downside risks related to the uncertain global economic outlook and potential adverse movements in commodity prices for Sierra Leone. To support broad-based growth and reduce the economy’s vulnerability to exogenous shocks, the authorities would need to sustain efforts to improve the business environment and address impediments to growth.
“Key among these are continued investment in infrastructure to support productivity gains in the private sector, increased economic diversification, and broader access to financial services, particularly for small- and medium-sized enterprises to create employment opportunities. The mission welcomed progress in the preparation of the authorities’ new poverty reduction and growth strategy, the Agenda for Prosperity, which outlines policies and reforms to address Sierra Leone’s developmental challenges.”
Citing as an example the performance of a program the IMF is sponsoring in the country, “the mission found that all quantitative performance criteria and indicative targets were met, and that progress was being made in implementing the government’s privatization agenda. With support from the IMF and other development partners, the authorities prepared legislation outlining fiscal regimes for natural resources.”
Diamonds from Sierra Leone is a Grammy-winning song released in 2005 by American rap musicians Kanye West and Jay-Z. It should be music to anyone’s ears that legislators are hard at work, trying to ensure that the erstwhile “blood” diamonds that the musicians sang about and which were once mined and sold ostensibly by warlords to buy weapons and fuel atrocities, will now benefit the country’s six million people, a great majority of whom remain dirt poor.
Sierra Leone is also endowed with some of the world’s best bauxite, rutile, gold and iron ore, but the country is also diversifying, moving away from a heavy dependence on minerals, although the pace of that diversification is still slow.
The economy is now being led by sectors other than minerals. The country’s official figures put agriculture’s contribution at 58.5% of the GDP, services industries at 10.4%, trade and tourism at 9.5%, wholesale and retail trade 9%, mining and quarrying at 4.5%, government services at 4%, manufacturing and handicrafts at 2%, construction 1.7% and electricity and water at 0.4%.
As to which of these sectors will take the lead in the drive to ensure that Sierra Leone no longer remains one of the poorest countries in the world, the answer may lie in whether the rest of the world sees the enormity of the challenge still facing the country as a hindrance, or an investment opportunity.

Tag: Finance Corporation

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

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The Journey Of A Thousand Miles