ICSAN seeks adoption of corporate governance to boost investment

The Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria (ICSAN) has called for the adoption of corporate governance to boost investment and ensure best practices in public and private sectors.

Contributing to socio-economic advancement of the country, ICSAN embarked on a result-oriented deliberation on how to adapt best governance principles to boost trade and investment in Nigeria at the ICSAN 2019 roundtable on Nigerian code of corporate governance held at Muson center, Lagos.

Themed ‘The 2018 Nigerian Code of Corporate Governance: Issues and Perspectives’, the event established a discourse around the recently approved code of conduct and stressed the need for financial accountability in firms.

According to the President, ICSAN, Samuel Kolawole, corporate governance delves into areas that are critical to the management of an organisation and recommends acceptable ways of doing things.

“It deals with issues like effective board leadership, disclosure and transparency, insider dealing, compliance, internal control, directors’ remunerations, sustainability risk management, board composition among others”, he said.

Kolawole noted that the organisation is increasing its awareness campaign for good corporate governance.

He said: “ICSAN also engages in advocacy to promote Corporate Governance through recurrent publication of policy papers on business and allied issues and continuous training programme.

“We have also made contributions into the various statutory bills and policies as an active member of Nigerian polity and we have not only issued pragmatic guidelines on best practices to private sector, but also positively influenced policy directions of the Public Sector through meetings with the various arms of government and contributions at diverse stakeholders forum.”
On the code, Kolawole said: “With the unveiling of the Code by the Federal Government on January 15, 2019, Nigeria joined the league of nations with prescribed high standards of corporate practices and ethical values. We now have nationally applicable code for all corporate forms and business configurations in attainment to trends in advanced climes.
“We at ICSAN made significant input to the emergence of this national Code not only at institutional level, but through sending our contribution to the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria and also at the level of our individual members, who were part of the Steering Committee on the drafting of the Code.”

Executive Secretary, Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, (FRCN), Daniel Asapokhai explained that FRCN views corporate governance from a multi stakeholder approach, which was reflected in the development of the code and steps for implementation.

He stressed the need to focus on implementation of the code rather than deliberations, noting that when synergy among organisations are established, challenges would be addressed as they arise.

On the need for sanctions to aid compliance with corporate governance,
Asapokhai said: “FRCN will continue to remain available to help companies deal with their peculiar situation even as we encourage all companies and their auditors to follow the clear practices recommended in the national code.”

Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and Chairman of the event, Prof. Umar Danbatta explained that corporate governance entails putting in place strong institutional structures, which necessitates the need to have the right people occupy positions and discharge their responsibilities professionally.