Many African societies face political,
social and economic challenges. These include
poverty and its associated maladies of unemployment,
malnutrition, disease, illiteracy, environmental
degradation and a severe lack of infrastructure,
technology and human capital needed to drastically
narrow the economic and technological chasm separating
Africa from the developed world.
A key challenge is to eradicate poverty. Our
African operations are focusing much of their
social investment efforts in fields such as education
and training, healthcare and welfare.
We also focus on helping to sponsor and assist
projects aimed at expanding Africa’s resources
in the areas of mathematics, science, technology
and engineering, including energy, as well as
projects and programmes that promote and celebrate
distinctly African achievements. It is also important
that our commitments and sponsorships contribute
to those wider pan-African initiatives focused
on strengthening and promoting Africa’s image
and attractiveness as an investment destination.
Each of our African banking operations is obliged
to set aside 1% of its profit after tax for social
investment projects.
The country-specific information
provides examples of some of the social investment
projects and programmes we supported in 2004.
|
