Samuel Uzo
Department of Philosophy
Pope John Paul II Seminary Awka.


Abstract
A critical evaluation of modern business trends in Africa portrays some spate of
paradox in her socioeconomic development. There is a rapid increase of international
corporations yet there is less accountability; there are lots of industrial and
infrastructural developments yet there are eloquent cases of unemployment. Local
companies transform into multinational corporations yet there is a clear absence of
fundamental business ethic on which the indigenous morality that constitutes integral
human development is rooted. While shareholder groups and government institutions
take capricious interests in businesses, the human community and even the non-human
environment are left in tatters. While the media advertises businesses in all intents and
purposes, questions of moral values of individuals and companies and/or individuals in
company are relegated to the background. Or why has the intervention of the
government in businesses not contributed to the common good, which is regarded as
the greatest good? Why have indigenous businesses not benefitted from foreign
policies? Why has globalization not created the possibility for businesses to be
simultaneously cross-cultural and more sensitive to cultural differences? Why do some
inhuman phenomena such as racism, injustice, oppression, slavery, gender inequality;
rear their ugly heads in modern multicultural business corporations? While modernity
presents us with a future filled with hope in the business world, a sojourn to “Ubuntu”,
an African traditional philosophy of social existence is essential. The finding of this
paper supports the thesis that integral human development remains an ethical ideal in
an ever dynamic business corporation in Africa. The paper argues that African
socioeconomic development is achievable only if “Ubuntu” constitute the ethic of
businesses in most African countries.

  1. Introduction
    A well administered business organization sets a nation on the pathway to
    development. This is because the socio-economic hub of a nation is, in all intents and
    purposes, dependent on the way businesses both, public and private sector, have
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    contributed to a nation’s GDP. At various levels, the question of how best to administer
    a business has occupied the mind of various scholars over the years. Various
    approaches have been adopted as a reliable panacea to the problems encountered by
    business corporations. Most prominent among those approaches is the stakeholder
    approach. A significant aspect of business ethics over the years is the protection of
    stakeholders. The absence of stakeholders in a given business organization sets such
    business on the path to underdevelopment. It suffices to know that Africa’s socioeconomic development is basically dependent on the extent to which partnership is
    established and enhanced among business corporations. Thus, there must be a business
    ethic that provides the moral imperative necessary for sustainable development of
    African economic institutions. But, it is no gainsaying that African socioeconomic
    development is still a mirage even in an era of the ‘big idea’-NEPAD. NEPAD, that is,
    New Partnership for African Development has been argued to be “an opening for
    resources flows, both aid and trade-related, and an attempt to re-envision development
    partnership on the basis of good governance within Africa” (Waal, 2002:464). Being
    sensitive to the high rate of poverty, conflict, insecurity, unemployment, low level of
    capitalization, and even the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, NEPAD aims
    to achieve the overall 7 per cent annual growth necessary for Africa to meet one of the
    Millenium Development Goals which is to half poverty. Yet, it is an inexplicable
    paradox that in the face of this ‘big idea, and in the midst of rich and endowed countries
    in the African continent, Africans are the poorest of the poor. To be sure, despite
    Botswana’s strong economic growth which has sustained the world’s highest real GDP
    growth and GDP per capita growth rates over the last 35 years (Leith, 2001), it is riddled
    with poverty whereby 47 per cent of her citizens live below poverty line. One of the
    reasons given for this is unequal distribution of resources. In recent times, Nigeria is
    encompassed by a deteriorating security situation which has a gruesome effect in
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    businesses. From endemic rural and urban poverty to high rate of unemployment; from
    debilitating youth unemployment to low industrial output; from unstable and
    deteriorating exchange to high inflation rate; from inadequate physical and social
    infrastructure to very large domestic debt and rising stock of external debt. (Ewetan,
    2013). The near implication of this is a weak economic institutions and distressed
    corporate organizations. These poor socioeconomic conditions, more often than not,
    attract the intervention of multinational institutions, aid agencies, foreign governments,
    international NGOs and international donors. These institutions are essentially colonial
    in character and orientation. The terms and conditions by which they partner with
    Africa are apparently un-African and unequal. They play the piper and determine the
    tune while the Africans are subjected to mere spectatorship in a business partnership
    which is meant to be mutual. One can easily suspect a crisis of socioeconomic
    development as none of these foreign business agencies have come up with a lasting
    solution to the African economic predicament. By and large, a moral dilemma creeps in:
    Should Africa depend on a foreign business ethic or rely on her indigenous sociocultural moral framework?
    It is on this basis that we adopt ‘Ubuntu’ as a business ethic that could salvage Africa
    from socio-economic underdevelopment. But, we shall first critically assess the
    relationship between business ethics and socio-economic development. It is in
    discovering the shortcomings of business ethics as not meeting the demands of most
    business corporations in Africa, that we shall propose ‘Ubuntu’ as a moral framework
    in understanding business activities in and with Africa.
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  2. Business Ethics and Socio-Economic Development in Africa
    Central to the dynamism and vitality of marketing institutions in Africa is a business
    ethic which serves as a stepping stone to a nation’s socioeconomic development. The
    concept of business ethics connotes an ethic in business as the business of ethics and
    also the fact that business in ethics entails applied ethics in which emphasis is laid on
    business ethics activities in the business world. Ethics, when applied to the business
    world is set to address the following questions:
    What endeavors of business people, companies and business associations
    have been undertaken? Setting up and dissemination of codes of conduct?
    Ethics training programmes? Position of ethics officers or the like? Public
    statements and publications of business leaders? Legislations? Are, and if
    so how are, domestic and foreign companies evaluated from an ethical
    point of view? By consumers, workers, investors and other groups and
    organizations? And so on.
    These questions which business ethics sets out to address are geared towards the
    development of a business organization in particular and the economic development of
    a nation in general.
    For a business to develop means that it seeks to include in its development goals some
    moral values that regulate human behaviour in such business environment. To this
    extent, business ethics has been defined as “the application of theories of right and
    wrong to activity within and between commercial enterprises, and between commercial
    enterprises and their broader environment. Its concern includes: The safety of working
    practices; the fairness of recruitment; the transparency of financial accounting; the
    promptness of payments to suppliers; the degree of permissible aggression between
    competitors; relations between businesses and consumers, local communities, national
    governments and ecosystem.
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    Etymol-analytically, the term ‘business ethics’ constitutes two words: ‘business’ and
    ‘ethics’. But, the semantic function of ‘business’ is to describe ethics as applied to the
    business world in which business decisions are adjudged right or wrong. Ethics is
    derived from the Greek word ethos which means custom or habitual way of acting.
    Similarly, the Latin expression mos; moris, from which we derive the word moral, is
    attributed to this understanding of ethics. Hence, ethics is the branch of philosophy that
    studies the morality of human actions, that is, the way humans ought to behave, the
    norms of conduct to which human actions ought to conform. (Omoregbe, 1979:4). Thus,
    it is also conceived as moral judgments, standards and rules of human conduct, with an
    emphasis on the determination of what is right and wrong (Artur, 2018:2). When
    applied to business organizations, the idea of business ethics comes to play.
    Business ethics can be traced back to antiquity in the writings of Plato and Aristotle
    extending to the modern philosophical reflections of Karl Marx and John Rawls. To be
    sure, the Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes that “traditional philosophers such as Plato,
    Aristotle, Aquinas, and Kant discuss issues of the right and wrong in economic activity.
    They sometimes examine specific business ethics puzzles, including the ethics of the
    profit motive, just price in trade, usury in lending, and ethics in negotiation.”
    (Donaldson, 2005). From this, it can be implied that business ethics suggests the study
    of the ethical dimensions of organizational activity on the systematic, organizational
    and intra-organizational levels. (Rossouw, 2010a). Moreover, business ethics focuses
    basically on what is good and right in a particular economic activity, where an
    organization engages in a moral analysis and assessment of such economic activities
    (Smith, 1790).
    Business ethics can be understood in two senses: Narrow and Broad. In a narrow sense,
    business ethics is understood as ‘corporate ethics’ as applicable to business
    organizations. (Berenbeim, 1987). But, in the broad sense, business ethics covers the
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    socio-economic aspect of life. Here, “business ethics deals with the individual decisionmaking of economic actors (such as managers and employees), the shaping and conduct
    of economic organizations, business-related public policies, economic systems; and
    global economic and financial institutions. In this paper, the broad sense of business
    ethics is relevant.
  3. Existing Frameworks of Business Ethics
    Given that this study is aimed at proposing Ubuntu as a business ethic for Africa’s
    socio-economic development, it is important to highlight existing frameworks of
    Business Ethics such as Classical Marxian Approach, Globalization, Ethical decisionmaking, Utilitarian Approach, Sternbergian Approach and Aristotelian Virtue Theory.
    As we progress in discussing these frameworks, we shall show their shortcomings
    which will then pave the way for an African socio-cultural framework: Ubuntu.
    3.1. Classical Marxism
    Classical Marxism is attributed to Karl Marx. It claims that specific forms of human
    agency (social labour and relations of production) and social structure (the forces and
    relations of production) have explanatory primacy in shaping the constitution and
    dynamics of social systems (Sean Creaven, 2000:1). It proposes that whatever we have
    as a socioeconomic system in general or business organization in particular stems from
    the dialectical interplay between human agency and social structure. Here, society is
    viewed as constituting the basic structures of inorganic matter to the higher strata of
    mind, self and society. The ontological status of each of these levels is understood by
    “its possession of discrete autonomous causal properties and conditional effects, and
    each arises once a given complexity of interaction at an anterior or underlying level of
    organization is reached.” (Ibid.1). This suggests a dialectical materialism in which a
    given social organization reaches its full realization to the extent to which it creates a
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    balance between material needs and personal needs. In short, one’s personal needs are
    attained as soon as one’s material needs are addressed. This is because due attention is
    given to the balance of powers inherent in both socio-economic realities. While the
    human infrastructure is enamored and enhanced by fulfilling the individual’s basic
    needs such as food, shelter, clothing, security and employment, the material needs are,
    to a large extent, met. Moreover, the in-tendency towards these basic needs shapes the
    perception and behaviour of the individual and even determines socio-economic and
    particular business policies.
    This classical Marxist approach ultimately promises some spate of holism in which
    “individuals are inserted involuntarily into patterned and enduring social relationships
    which exist independently of their will, which shape their actions and consciousness in
    determinate ways, and which offers resistance even to concerted collective efforts to
    alter or transform them” (Creaven, S. Ibid.).
    3.2. Globalization
    Economic policy makers, business managers and multinational corporations have
    unconsciously modeled their economic principles along the path of globalization. Here,
    globalization is considered to be a framework for upon which the economic destinies of
    nations rest. This is because as the linkages and interconnections of nation-states
    intensify owing to the process of modernization and technological progress in this era
    of globalization, the economic goals of individual nation-states homogenize and
    crystallize into a moral corpus that will serve self-same global interest.
    In explaining the phenomenon of globalization, McGrew notes, “The multiplicity of
    linkages and interconnections that transcend the nation-state (and by implication the
    societies) which make up the modern world system. It defines a process through which
    events, decisions and activities in one part of the world can come to have significant
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    consequences for individuals and communities in quite distant parts of the globe”
    (McGrew, 1992:13-14). According to IMF, globalization means more integrated goods,
    services and capital markets. And, for Igho Natufe (2001:1), globalization is “the free
    movement of capital, goods and services across national boundaries.”
    However, situating Africa in the globalized economy portrays Africa as still basking in
    underdevelopment even in the globalization process. Being aware of this, Igbafen avers:
    Notable in the global space is the fact that the dominant nations of the
    world have technological, commercial capital resources and socio-political
    dominance over the dependent countries of Africa, Following from this, it
    is obvious that the developed countries set the rules in the world political
    economy structure that has been well planned and directed by
    transnational bodies. This advantage has essentially made it possible for
    dominant countries of the West to impose conditions of exploitation and
    extract part of the domestically produced surplus. (Igbafen, 2004:296).
    So, although globalization enables freedom of various economies of the world, yet some
    economies are free but everywhere in chains. Here, one meets a paradox; a transition
    from global age to global cage! It is my view that the notion of liberalization of
    economies; an immediate or remote implication of globalization which involves
    allowing certain individuals to determine market prices, demands and supply of
    commodities, will lead to sundry forms of capitalism, global injustice, exploitation and
    economic imperialism. Some oil rich nations like Nigeria will produce yet bask in
    poverty. I wish to note immediately that Nigeria needs to reformulate its economic
    policies and philosophies to suit the poor masses and encourage what can be referred to
    as “democratic economy” not economic democracy. The former means that the people
    have the right to determine prices of commodities based on their immediate
    predicament with the aim of putting an end to poverty. The latter is largely political
    whereby the economic leaders based on their professionalism adopts a policy that they
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    consider suitable for the people. Here, one expects cases of ethnicity, religious
    sentiments, less accountability, arbitrary increments, class conflict and even gender
    politics to play out.
    3.3. Ethical Decision-making approach
    The ethical decision making approach claims that businesses thrive based on actions
    and decisions taken by the company which stresses the importance of accountability;
    the dauntless necessity of the force of moral principle governing large international
    corporations. The importance of the ethical decision making approach is that “the
    corporate ethics through which business organization conducts their affairs had
    considerable economic and social consequences.” (Cadbury, 2002:11). This approach is
    conscious of the fact that given the internationalization of businesses, there tend to be
    less accountability. Business is “spread across the world and no longer rooted in a
    single community that can be held responsible by its singular jurisdiction.” Thus,
    Cadbury views that “in a localized business there were very strong local pressures,
    providing feedback, more or less, on the actions and decisions taken by the company”.
    Ethical decision-making is therefore essential for the growth of a particular business.
    According to Sternberg,
    failure to recognize and properly address ethical problems can lead to
    very substantial charges, both legal and financial; being unethical can cost
    a business its very life. Many of the most dramatic business failures and
    the most significant business losses of the last decade were the result of
    unethical conduct: consider the fates of Barings and BCCI, Polly Peck and
    the Robert Maxwell group. Normally, ‘bad ethics is bad business’: the
    short term gains which may be won by unethical conduct seldom pay in
    the end.
    But, it does not mean that an ethical conduct necessarily leads to a successful business.
    There are cases where acting ethically has led to business losses. A bambara nut cake
    (okpa) trader who mixes various other condiments like flour (which is unethical) to
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    increase the quantity of the cake will of course have more customers than the honest
    trader who just bakes the bambara nut cake without any additives. The latter tends to
    lose more customers than the former. There are many such examples in the Nigerian
    market and business centers. Taking a moral decision is usually uncomfortable to some
    business people especially in an era of high competition in businesses.
    Moreover, the ethical decision-making approach falls under the weight of its argument.
    If accountability is a moral principle that businesses must adopt, then the plausibility of
    accountability in large international corporations is questionable. How can one
    ascertain the accountability of the “ten largest corporations of the world that have about
    4.3 million employees”?
    Cadbury offers another reason for the failure of the ethical decision-making approach as
    “the occurrence of diverse interests shown by shareholder groups and by government
    themselves, in ethical and environmental issues.” Cadbury notes an example of the
    passing of the Foreign and Corrupt Practice Act in the United States. This is an instance
    of government intervention on private businesses; a novel development in the business
    world. Cadbury concludes that “such intervention raises the problem for governments
    of trying to define limits on conduct, of settling what is acceptable and what is not
    acceptable, in a world where transactions are moving faster and becoming more
    complex all the time. It is very difficult for them to keep up.” (Cadbury, 2002:10)
    3.4. Sternbergian Approach
    Sternberg’s approach begins with a critique of the very idea of business ethics. She
    believes that there is no such thing as business ethics; that business ethics is either
    theoretically or impossible in practice. To justify this position, she asserts:
    Sometimes, of course, that criticism is wholly justified. [Thus if] ‘business
    ethics’ is taken to denote a separate business ethic, a set of ethical rules
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    that apply exclusively in business and nowhere else, then there is indeed
    no such thing. Equally, most of the sanctimonious criticisms of business
    that pass as business ethics fully deserve to be dismissed. But that is
    because much of what masquerades as business ethics is nothing of the
    sort, having little to do with either business or with ethics.
    She then goes on to propose a model which is built on her analysis of the nature
    of business. It consists of 5 steps:
    The first step is simply to identify what is actually being asked by determining
    who is asking? What has prompted the issue? What precisely is at stake? Who
    will be affected by the outcome? What sort of decision or action might be called
    for? Who is responsible for taking, implementing, reviewing the decision? And
    so on.
    The second step entails determining whether it actually is a problem for the
    business. This involves three shades of inquiry: Is the issue relevant to business?
    Is it relevant to this business? And is it a problem for this business?
    The third step is to identify the constraints which may limit solutions. Sternberg
    notes that business decisions are constrained not only by law and regulation, but
    also by contractual, cultural, economic, physical and technical considerations.
    The fourth step is to see how alternative solutions measure up against the three
    key conditions of maximizing long-term owner value and respecting distributive
    justice and ordinary decency. This, according to Sternberg, is a straightforward
    business calculation because it takes into consideration all the potential costs and
    consequences including that which are distant, delayed and indirect.
    The fifth and concluding step Sternberg gives is identifying the right course of
    action for the business.
    Sternberg’s approach is clearly contradictory. At first, she believes there is no
    such thing as business ethics yet she goes on to propose theses for a successful
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    business ethics which in themselves constitute the core of business ethics.
    Moreover, her theses have been found to lack flexibility and universal validity
    such that the possibility of their standing the test of time is quite slim.
    3.5. Aristotelian Virtue Approach
    One important focus of virtue ethicists is the desirability of one’s character traits rather
    than one’s personality trait. Virtue ethicists provide a list of virtues such as; courage,
    temperance, wisdom and justice. Virtue ethics has gained popular expression in the
    Nichomachean Ethics of Aristotle and (much later) Elizabeth Anscombe’s Modern Moral
    Philosophy published in 1958.
    In particular, the Aristotelian Virtue approach shows a connection between his concept
    of virtue (arête) and happiness (eudaimonia). Here, virtue is viewed as a necessary (but
    not sufficient) condition of attaining a fulfilled life. For one to be fulfilled, one must
    always exhibit excellent character traits. These traits are what Aristotle understands as
    virtue. However, in eudaimonia, one seems to have attained a fulfilled life as a result of
    having achieved one’s full potential (Aristotle: X, 7, 1177a11). Now, one’s skill or virtue
    (arête) is needed for one to achieve one’s full potential. In the Ethics, Aristotle
    distinguished between two kinds of virtue namely, moral virtue and intellectual virtue.
    For Aristotle, moral virtue was the balance between two vices calculated by the Golden
    Mean. According to Hughes (2001:10), “some belong to one’s moral character (for
    example, courage, or generosity), and others to one’s skill at thinking (such as being
    good at planning, or quick to grasp the point of something).” Of course, the latter refers
    to intellectual virtue.
    The Aristotelian virtue ethics is relevant to the business world especially in terms of a
    statement of business values or code of conducts which involves complying with rules,
    regulations and general principles. In business organizations, virtues are construed as
    values established prohibiting behaviours that will give a bad reputation for the
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    business organization. To this extent, it places a check on individual character traits of
    employees, stakeholders, suppliers, consumers and the general management of the
    business organization.
    A fundamental problem with this approach is that it is self-centered and/or one-sided in
    the sense that the codes of conduct are written based on the personal principles of the
    CEO, executives and other key stakeholders of the business. This gives room for
    arbitrariness in making business decisions and moral absolutism in determining the
    structure, content, development and application of the business ethics. Moreover, the
    self-centeredness of this approach tends to create a room for privatization policies
    which have been the focus of neoliberal economies. Their neo-liberalization economic
    policies include: free market system, privatization, globalization, deregulation, austerity
    and reduction of government spending in order to increase the role of the private sector
    in the economy and society. (Goldstein, 2011:30). These policies are appealing when
    viewed at the face level but they are ultimately rooted in the Western imperialistic
    agenda. This approach, at the long run, would lead to market fundamentalism,
    inequality, imperialism and political opposition. Scholars such as Amartya Sen, Noam
    Chomsky and Pope Francis I have strongly criticized neo-liberalism.
    But, one problem with the aforementioned frameworks is that they engender economic
    policies that give room to economic superiorization whereby the logic of development
    of the wealthy is regarded as superior and acceptable at the detriment of the middle
    class and lower class. By and large, the rich get richer and the poor poorer. This can be
    found in some South American countries like Brazil, Argentina and Mexico as well as
    some European and Asian countries.
    It is based on the shortcomings of the above existing frameworks and the need to situate
    African socio-economic reality on the path of positive development that I propose
    Ubuntu; an African socio-ethical framework for the development of business
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    corporations. It is my argument that if Ubuntu determines the socio-economic policies of
    business corporations in Africa, it will not only unify the activities of African business
    corporations but will address the concrete problems of hunger, poverty,
    unemployment, insecurity, disease, high mortality rate and ethnic and religious crises.
    What is Ubuntu?
    At first I shall attempt an etymological analysis. Ubuntu is derived from two Nguni
    (isiZulu) words ubu (action or capacity) and ntu (being). Hence, it is a unique and
    unifying capacity of being in which being is dynamic rather than static. Here, some
    form of action is implied but this action is positive, dialogical and persistent. This
    means that in the process of being, action is necessary in order to stir or trigger action in
    another being. This announces the reality of a being that is characterized with otherness
    because others are essential in the actualization of (one’s) being. This actualization is a
    continuation of the preeminence of being. The preeminence of being is that through the
    activities of the human person the true meaning of being is realized. Hence, Ubuntu is
    linked to the Nguni aphorism: Umuntu Ngumuntu Ngabantu, which can be translated as
    “a person is a person because of or through others” (Moloketi, 2009; Tutu, 2004).
    According to Ramose, “….ubuntu in most African languages is a gerundive, a verbal
    noun denoting a particular state of being and becoming at the same time. It thus
    denotes a particular action already performed an enduring action or state of be-ing and
    the openness to yet another action or state of be-ing.” (1992:792) Thus, Ubuntu can be
    described as the capacity in an African culture to express compassion, reciprocity,
    dignity, humanity and mutuality in the interests of building and maintaining
    communities with justice and mutual caring (Khoza, 2006; Luhabe, 2002; Mandela, 2006;
    Tutu, 1999). It is basically a humanistic philosophy which represents an African
    conception of the human being, and his/her relationship with the community that
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    embodies the ethics that define Africans and their social behaviours (Mbigi and Maree,
    2005). It is to this extent an African philosophy of social existence from which sociomoral values are derived. In fact, Ubuntu is an ethical framework which aids the
    understanding of individuals at every level of society. Hence, it takes into
    consideration the complementarity inherent in the African life and being expressed in
    their constant dialogical relationships and social arrangement. Through this expression
    “we should also recognize that the forces of life manifest themselves in an infinite
    variety of content and form.”(Ramose, 752). This means that the traditional African
    does not think independently. His/her thinking is characterized with manifold
    ‘aboutness’. Hence,
    Africans are social beings that are in constant communion with one
    another; where a human being is regarded as a human being only through
    his or her relationships to other human beings. Therefore, the survival of a
    human being is dependent on other people, such as the community and
    society. Within an African environment, socio-cultural underpinnings are
    rigorously applied and the African Umunthu or Ubuntu (humanness)
    philosophies are omnipresent throughout the continent.
    Therefore, the Ubuntu socio-cultural dimensions are applied and considered critical in
    any organization operating in Africa (Lutz, 2009; Mangaliso, 2001; Mbigi and Maree,
    2005). The Ubuntu ethical framework thus takes into consideration that “Africa has its
    own unique socio-cultural settings, which have a direct impact on people-centered
    systems encompassing leadership, employee welfare, extended family systems, caring
    and sharing, and corporate governance. Thus, the socio-cultural diversity premised on
    the use of Western management systems would pose a great challenge within an Africabased organization.” (Khomba & Vermaac, 2012:3511).
    Deriving its socio-economic orientation from the works of African scholars such as
    Leopold Senghor, Amilcar Cabral and Julius Nyerere, Ubuntu proposes an unbiased
    ethical paradigm that is not only concerned with African socio-economic wellbeing but
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    also extends to other regions of the world. In fact, “the [African] village is meant to be
    part of a virtuous circle of ever increasing exchanges between city and country; between
    industry and agriculture.” (Saul, 2013:205). Here, Ubuntu envisions a global economic
    institution in which every individual is a stakeholder. This is because it is an “ethics of
    interrelationships, situated in a communitarian social fabric of caring and sharing,
    ubuntu may equal, and even exceed, socialist notions of a ‘radical egalitarianism’
    (Cornell 2009; Cornell & Van Marle 2015).
    From the foregoing, it is clear that adopting Ubuntu as a business ethic will help bridge
    the gap between the affluent and the poor; the shareholder and non-shareholding
    stakeholder; the elite and the common man; the developed and the underdeveloped;
    western individualism and African communalism. It will create a business corporation
    with a human face in which being takes precedence to having. This is because the
    wellbeing of the human person is considered to be central to any profitable business
    activity. With this, the growing consensus of private property (Caromba, 2014),
    capitalist relation (Van Norren, 2014) and pervasive inequality (Cornell &Van Marle,
    2015), is brought to a halt while sundry economic predicaments like food insecurity,
    hunger, unemployment, disease, high mortality rate and inflation are adequately
    managed.
    Conclusion
    In this essay, I discovered that the thriving western business ethical frameworks are
    anti-African socio-economic development paradigms which have enveloped Africans
    and the African business corporations in utter stagnancy and economic regression. I
    think this must have influenced the founding of African Development Bank and various
    Afrocentric business institutions which supposedly incorporates the traditional socioeconomic values. Although enamoured and coloured by modernity and the
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    superhighway technologies of the Western order, Ubuntu is found to instill an
    afrocentric business consciousness in business managers, stakeholders, shareholders,
    producers and even political leaders who are bent on a revivalist mission of their
    economy. What is business without love for the other; care for the wellbeing of the
    other; hospitality of the consumer? Should I enrich myself at the detriment of the
    customer or should I structure my business in such a way that both producer and
    consumer will benefit? Ubuntu will not only affect our socio-economic value but also
    our socio-economic psyche which will largely transform our behaviour within and
    without the business world.
    Logos: African Journal of Philosophy and Studies. Vol. 5, 2022
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    48
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