the Commodity Surveillance Programme; the microfinancing scheme; the Small and Medium Enterprises Equity Investment Scheme (SMEEIS); the Refinancing and Discounting Scheme; and the Agricultural Credit Support Scheme. However, efforts to improve access to funding by the informal sector should go beyond creating institutions. They should focus on improving the effective implementation of existing statutes and schemes so as to enable SMEs to access funding effectively, and to foster an enabling environment for their operations. 3.36 Economic and financial crimes, such as advance fee fraud (‘419’)6 and money laundering, have had severe consequences for Nigeria, including impacting on the foreign direct investment (FDI) flows to the country due to a lack of investor confidence. Fighting these crimes is done mainly through laws such as the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, the EFCC (Establishment) Act, the Money Laundering Act and the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act. These laws contain comprehensive provisions prohibiting the laundering of the proceeds of a crime or an illegal act. They also provide appropriate penalties. However, observers believe that implementation is ineffective. Nigeria continues to be hampered by systemic corruption and its debilitating ancillaries – bribery, graft, advance fee fraud and nepotism. In order to improve the situation, it is important to ensure that all necessary safeguards, including whistleblower protection, be put in place. This will help to expose unethical and corrupt business practices. The media also have a role to play as a watchdog. However, this oversight function in the public interest has been ineffectively exercised due to the political patronage of the media and limited expertise in investigative and feature reporting. 3.37 Nigeria is making increased demands on big business organisations for greater social responsibility. Stakeholders believe that corporations are not doing enough in terms of social investment. The awareness and implementation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) are generally poor on the part of both corporations and would-be beneficiaries. Corporations’ understanding of good corporate citizenship and CSR is largely based on philanthropic and altruistic notions. Much of the CSR focus in Nigeria tends to be on multinationals and the big oil-producing companies. However, SMEs and other home-grown companies can also play an active role in sensitising communities and advocating for CSR. There are, however, perceptions that NGOs, community-based organisations (CBOs) and CSOs are weak, lack internal democracy, and show limited transparency and accountability. Public-private partnerships, as vehicles for development, are not used enough in Nigeria. 3.38 Nigeria was the first African country to sign up for the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in 2003. The Nigerian EITI is aimed at due process and achieving transparency in payments by extractive industry 6 12 Advance fee fraud (commonly called ‘419’, referring to Article 419 in chapter 38 of the Nigerian criminal code that deals with fraud) is a financial scam that persuades people to advance large sums of money in the hope of making a significantly larger gain. It essentially deals with fraud committed with the aid of fake claims, identities, positions and, in most cases, for attractive but nonexistent proposals.