Practical Insights to End CSR interventions Responsibly

CSR REPORTERS has observed that one of the least discussed but most critical aspects of CSR in Nigeria is the exit strategy. Companies enter communities with grand promises, impressive signboards, and brightly coloured branded shirts. They dig boreholes, build classrooms, donate hospital beds, or train women in small trades and then they leave.

But too often, barely a year after the brand’s departure, the borehole stops working, the classroom becomes dilapidated, the trained women return to idleness, and the community, once hopeful, feels abandoned. The brand’s legacy fades, and the project that once made headlines becomes a reminder of broken promises.

This happens because too many CSR projects in Nigeria are built for visibility, not continuity. The intention may be noble, but without a well-thought-out exit plan, even the most expensive intervention becomes a temporary fix. That’s why building a community exit strategy should be at the heart of every CSR manager’s plan not as an afterthought, but as an integral part of the design.

Note that a proper exit strategy does not mean walking away. It means handing over. It means ensuring that what the company started can continue to thrive without constant financial support or supervision. It’s about leaving behind a functioning system, not dependence.

Take for example a Nigerian oil and gas firm that built a solar-powered borehole in a host community in Rivers State. The project launch was televised, community chiefs praised the company, and the CSR team returned to Lagos to write glowing reports. But within six months, the borehole broke down because no one knew how to maintain the solar panels or replace the filters. The villagers went back to fetching water from the same polluted stream they had used before. What went wrong? There was no exit plan.

Contrast that with the approach taken by Nestlé Nigeria in its Nestlé Empowering Rural Women project. Before gradually pulling out of pilot communities, the company trained beneficiaries not just in sales and business management, but also in cooperative savings and leadership. By the time the brand stepped back, the women had formed self-governing cooperatives that continued running profitably. That’s what responsible exit looks like, sustainability beyond sponsorship.

To achieve this, Nigerian CSR professionals must first understand that community ownership is key. The community should never see the project as a “company gift.” Instead, they should be part of the process from conception to implementation. For example, if you’re building a health centre, involve local health workers, traditional rulers, and youth groups in planning and design. Let them choose the site, help with logistics, and even contribute labor. When people contribute, they take ownership and when they take ownership, they protect and sustain.

Secondly, capacity building should run parallel to every intervention. Training locals to manage, maintain, and operate whatever you’re providing ensures continuity. Nigerian Breweries, for instance, learned this through its Water of Life initiative. In many of its water projects across the North, the company set up Water Management Committees made up of local residents trained to monitor and repair facilities. These committees collected token maintenance fees from households, ensuring that when something broke, there was a local system in place to fix it.

Another critical step in designing an exit strategy is institutional linkage. Many CSR projects die because they are isolated not connected to existing systems or structures. If a company builds a primary healthcare centre but fails to hand it over to the state Ministry of Health or integrate it into the Primary Health Care Development Agency’s network, that clinic will likely shut down once the generator stops working. But if government oversight or funding is built in from the start, the transition becomes seamless.

For corporate CSR professionals, this means actively engaging local authorities early. Before building a school, ensure the state Ministry of Education commits to sending teachers. Before funding a youth program, get the National Directorate of Employment or SMEDAN involved. Co-ownership between private and public sectors creates longevity.

Economic sustainability is another pillar. Many Nigerian CSR projects fail because they create dependency rather than empowerment. For example, a company donates free farm inputs to a community for three years but once the sponsorship ends, farmers can no longer afford the seeds or fertilizers. A smarter approach is to tie support to income generation. Instead of endless donations, teach communities to turn the project into a business. This could mean linking farmers to microfinance, training artisans in cooperative management, or creating local markets for their goods.

An inspiring example is the Shell LiveWIRE programme, which has produced hundreds of independent entrepreneurs in the Niger Delta. Rather than continuous handouts, the program offers seed funding, mentorship, and access to markets, equipping beneficiaries to thrive long after Shell’s involvement ends. That’s the essence of sustainability.

Then comes monitoring and mentorship, not to control, but to support. Even after withdrawal, periodic check-ins help communities feel connected. Brands can institutionalize this through alumni networks, regional associations, or light-touch technical support. For instance, Dangote Cement, after funding youth skill acquisition in Kogi and Ogun States, continued to monitor progress through community liaison officers who made occasional visits to track growth and offer advice. That kind of sustained relationship builds goodwill and ensures that the company’s impact doesn’t fade away.

A Nigerian CSR manager once said, “The goal of a good CSR project is to make yourself unnecessary.” That statement holds profound wisdom. The day the community can run, maintain, and even replicate your project without your budget is the day you’ve succeeded. That’s when charity becomes development.

Of course, designing a proper exit strategy requires patience and planning. Management often pressures CSR teams to deliver fast, visible results, ribbon-cuttings, photo ops, or social media moments. But real impact takes time. As professionals, it’s our duty to educate management that sustainability is not about how much we spend, but how long what we spend on will last.

Before you launch your next project, ask yourself: “Who will maintain this when we’re gone?” If you can’t answer that question confidently, pause and redesign.

Nigeria is full of half-finished CSR dreams, abandoned skills centres, broken boreholes, forgotten youth schemes. The next generation of CSR professionals must break that cycle.

Let’s start measuring success not by how many communities we enter, but by how many we can exit responsibly, leaving behind systems that breathe, grow, and sustain themselves long after our logos fade from the signboards.