The Institute of Directors Centre for Corporate Governance, (IoDCCG) and the Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) have pledged their commitments to developing productive partnership.
The organisations renewed the commitment when the chairman, IoDCCG, Mr. Shuaibu Idris and his management team paid a courtesy call on the executive secretary and chief executive officer of FRCN, Mr. Shuaibu Ahmed at the Ikeja head office in Lagos.
Speaking at the event, Idris said IoDCCG board of governors was carefully constituted to cut across many institutions with diverse interests and to ensure proper representation that matches the aspirations of the founding fathers and mandate of the centre.
He named the institutions as the Institute of Directors (IoD), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
He listed the board of the centre as comprising the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), the Chartered Institute of Bankers (CIBN) and the Nigerian Association of Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA).
He added that the centre hoped to expand the board membership to include regulators such as FRCN, CBN, NCC, PENCOM and NAICOM among others in a bid to harmonise and have a single forum where corporate governance practice is held in high standards.
Among the request Idris presented to Ahmed included partnership with FRCN on the centre’s maiden edition of the national corporate governance summit; invitation to FRCN as a member of the board of governors of IoDCCG; invitation to FRCN to become an institutional corporate member of the centre; as well as partnership with FRCN on the production of a book on corporate governance.
Responding, Ahmed acknowledged that there was the need to further strengthen the existing relationship for greater impact in the corporate and public sectors.
He disclosed that there are seven directorates at the FRCN and one of such directorates is specifically of corporate governance and its practice in Nigeria.
“The FRCN understands the need to bring corporate governance practices into the public and the not-for-profit sectors, having successfully achieved certain levels of penetration in the private sector.
“This initiative has been instituted… and as soon as plans are formalised, IoDCCG will be partnered on this initiative,” he said.
Ahmed further said FRCN would seek partnership with IoDCCG in the areas of corporate governance advocacy, research as well as advocacy on corporate governance, training and capacity development by holding at least one training per quarter.
He stated that companies which had filed reports as mandated should see publications showing analyses of reports, highlighting learning, trends and recommendations among other issues.
He further said the FRCN welcomed the idea of collaboration on the national corporate governance summit, reiterating that there is no need for duplicity and pledged to support the centre on the programme.
Ahmed assured Idris of FRCN’s readiness to join the board of IoDCCG once a letter to that effect was received.
He also assured the IoDCCG team of FRCN’s support and collaboration to advance the corporate governance practices in the country.
“We have beamed enough searchlight on the private sector, we now need to consider taking a critical look at the public sector,” Ahmed added.
