We focused on social mission that unlocks youths’ potential to make a difference – Adeyole

Oladele Adeyole, country manager of Beiersdorf Nigeria, in this interview with Pius Dukor, speaks about the impact of the initiative on capacity development, major partnership drive, CSR initiatives among other issues. Excerpts:

What exactly is Beiersdorf’s social mission and how does the company win with care?

We are the inventors of modern skincare with over 150 years of heritage. Beiersdorf is the force behind power brands like Nivea, Eucerin and Elastoplast which are leading consumer brands in their respective segment. We have a global workforce of more than 20,000 people in more than 60 countries with our global headquarters in Hamburg, Germany, a country with a very strong heritage of innovative and high-quality products.

Nivea is an undisputed skincare brand in Nigeria and has served Nigerian consumers with quality offerings for the past 50 years. To continue to deliver on consumer expectations, we have expanded our operations in Nigeria with the establishment of a manufacturing footprint in the country to serve our rapidly growing consumer base not only in Nigeria but across the West African sub-region.

We are proudly contributing to the social economic progress of Nigeria through employment creation and making a social impact with our CSR initiatives such as Nivea Connect/Cancer Initiatives or CBS Day.

At Beiersdorf, our ambition to be the best skincare company in the world is not measured just by our business performance but underpinned by our commitment to our social mission. Care beyond Skin is ingrained in our DNA as a company. We have committed enormous resources to our social mission working with our numerous partners in Nigeria.

The Nivea Social Mission Projects aim at fighting social isolation first before the symptoms occur by altering behaviours and increasing resilience and awareness.

Secondly, after the symptoms have occurred to reduce the impact of the symptoms, we strive to make an impact in our community by using these key pillars of interventions: providing information (Professional information, education, and advice to raise awareness and advocacy); enabling connection by improving human relations of individuals/groups, especially the vulnerable members of society; strengthening resilience by improving overall resilience of individuals/group by providing financial/psychosocial support to the vulnerable group in our communities.

We are proud of the partnerships that we have leveraged so far to advance this social cause which include our partnership with the Lagos Food Bank between 2020 and 2023 in fighting food insecurity by offering monthly food supplies to indigent widows and children in our community.

Another was our partnership with Plan International for Empowerment for Girls Programme between 2023 and 2024 aimed at providing support for girls displaced in Northeast Nigeria due to insurgency and re-integrating them back into society. Then there is the partnership with The Dorcas Foundation in caring for children with cancer, ensuring that childhood cancer survival rates in the country are comparable to what is obtainable in developed countries.

Why is cancer the selected initiative to support this year in the ‘Care Beyond Skin’ campaign and why specifically back to school as the initiative to express this?

At Beiersdorf, our ambition is to be the best skincare company in the world, but we also care beyond skin, which means that we are committed to our social mission.

We just launched a Cancer Support initiative for our internal staff globally in 2024 and we felt we should take this initiative beyond our stratosphere and make an impact in the larger community we serve. Our objective was to offer support to children diagnosed with Cancer by addressing three key areas of intervention, namely: Care Givers Empowerment, Care Support, and Back to School for survivors. This support to The Dorcas Foundation goes beyond just donation for us, as it is also about making a difference.

Are there any other activities executed by the company under the social Mission umbrella?

Yes, some of the projects are running concurrently and we aim to add new ones in the coming months. We will stick to our key objective of fighting social isolation and any project that meets these criteria, and if we see that we can deliver impact at scale, then it is something that will be in our consideration.

As a skincare company, what informed the decision to embark on this partnership with Dorcas Cancer Foundation?

Yes, we are a skincare company, but we do care beyond Skin. The Dorcas Foundation partnership is important to us as their work in the community ties into our social mission agenda, hence it was not a difficult decision to offer the support to amplify the impact they are making in Childhood Cancer Care in our community.

Are there plans to extend the social mission beyond cancer care in the future?

We are always looking for ways and avenues to deepen our partnership with credible organisations serving our community to strengthen resilience and provide awareness on our key theme of fighting social isolation, especially among vulnerable groups which include Women and Children.