Illovo Sugar Malawi Plc geared to create more opportunities for its consumers

Illovo’s investiment towards MUST’s IT services

* Illovo has spent over K2.5 billion in the last two and a half years in CSR and CVS

* CSR is about sharing value created by the business while CSV is creating value through business done jointly with stakeholders

By Twimepoki Mangani, MANA

Malawi Stock Exchange-listed company, Illovo Sugar Malawi Plc says it is and will continue embracing corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate shared vision (CSV) to fulfill their mandate of contributing to the development of the country.

Managing Director, Lekani Katandula said this on Thursday in Lilongwe when after his engagement with the Parliamentary Committee on Social & Community Affairs, which invited the company to appreciate its CSR efforts and how they identify their priority areas.

He explained that CSR is about sharing value created by the business while CSV is creating value through business done jointly with stakeholders.

“CSV is a concept that we move away from one donor just giving resources to assist different beneficiaries without creating any further value — to a scenario where you do investments which help create value for both parties by finding business opportunities to create supply as well as employment,” he said.

Katandula reaffirmed Illovo’s ongoing commitment of spreading their CSR activities across Malawi in response to queries raised by the Committee on limiting CSR to people within Illovo’s principle area of operation.

“They want us to increase the amounts that are intended to benefit people outside our primary areas of operations — referencing Chikwawa and Nkhotakota. The committee says our sugar reaches to all Malawians, so from time to time we should run programmes for the constituencies, which is something we do and showed the committee for their appreciation,” he said.

Illovo has spent over K2.5 billion in the last two and a half years in CSR and CVS covering projects like Shire Valley Transformation Program, assisting towards cyclones Anna in 2022 and Freddy this year; contributing K150 million towards Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST) Endowment Fund.

It also has massively assisted in the intervention towards CoVID-19 and cholera pandemics and just the past week, the sugar producers committed a total of K109,925,400 in adopting 4 primary schools in Chikwawa District in partnership with Mary’s Meals school feeding program.

The schools are Chimbiya, Nambesa, Mwanza and Namicheni in Nchalo catering to 4,954 learners for a period of 12 months — which translates to 979,878 meals.

At the signing ceremony of the contract, Katandula emphasized that providing access to education and nutrition is essential if Illovo is to succeed in creating thriving communities — which is the slogan for its CSR.

He said the promotion of healthy nutrition and education is precisely the same that the company has been providing when it invested over K8 billion in vitamin A fortification in sugar from 2014 to date — with a total of K915.226 million spent in 2022/23 financial year alone.

In its belief in the power of education and recognizing its role it has to play towards its advancement, Illovo has donated hi-tech ICT servers to MUST — that included high-end HP ProLiant DL380P G8 servers; NETAPP FAS2240-2 and Quantum Scalar i40 Premium storage systems as well as an Adler Rack 43U server rack.

And also in its quest in always seeking innovative ways to reward its loyal customers and consumers, Illovo Sugar launched its biggest promotion this year — dubbed ‘Tseketseke Kuma Last’ — which has been allocated with K157 million on prizes — which is a sequel of 2020 ‘Iponyereni Kwakuya ndi Illovo’ and last year’s ‘Iponyereninso Kwakuya’.

Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Committee’s vice-chairperson, Bernard Chitekwe applauded Illovo for introducing the rather new concept of CSV in the trading sector as well as their commendable efforts towards CSR.

“The introduction of CSV is a very good move,” he said. “We shall introduce it to our line ministry of trade so that they take it up and probably have it embedded in some of the polices that implement CSR.

“They have over 15,000 employees and are making strides within their areas of operation. We are still asking them to make contribution towards all districts in Malawi highlighting people with disabilities, the youth, women and the underprivileged,” he said.

Illovo Sugar’s social impact in tax contribution was K17 billion in 2021, K28 billion in 2022 and currently stands at K23 billion. Cane growers received payments of K19 billion, K21 billion and K16 billion in financial years of 2021, 2022 and 2023 respectively.—Additional reporting by Duncan Mlanjira, Maravi Express