Corporate Social Responsibility and the Impact of COVID-19 on Healthcare Institutions in Nigeria

This chapter examines the corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities in the healthcare institutions in Nigeria, before and during the COVID-19 era. The extent to which the healthcare institutions are seen to be socially responsible and the CSR from profit-oriented companies to hospitals were examined. The paper reviewed annual reports of 20 listed companies from 2017 to 2020 and websites of 46 healthcare institutions. The results show that before the COVID-19 era, there was poor CSR from profit-oriented companies to healthcare institutions, but there was a huge change during the COVID-19 era, and most of the CSR activities reported by these business organisations were committed to the healthcare institutions. Majority of the healthcare institutions reported employee-related issues in the workplace. The level of ethical behaviour of healthcare institutions and their relationships with the community were also reported in the websites of the institutions but, not by the majority. Reports on management of toxic wastes and relationships with patients were scarcely found. The study concludes that CSR has not penetrated the healthcare institutions in Nigeria and proposes increased resource allocations to the healthcare system from both government and private companies. The study also encourages healthcare institutions to willingly report their socially responsible activities.