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ICSAN tasks boards on organisational growth

By Gloria Ehiaghe
22 May 2018   |   1:45 am
An effective board evaluation has been described to assist highly successful boards to enhance their performance and improve their organization, as it help boards unlock its full potential as well as provide a yardstick for testing their performance against others, the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria...

An effective board evaluation has been described to assist highly successful boards to enhance their performance and improve their organization, as it help boards unlock its full potential as well as provide a yardstick for testing their performance against others, the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria (ICSAN) has said. 

The body stated that for a board to perform its role effectively, it is imperative that it assesses its performance, the individual directors’ performance and those of the board committees annually.

The past president of ICSAN, Dr Nosike Agokei stated this recently at the 2018 round table on corporate governance organised by the institute. Speaking on the theme, ‘Board evaluation and succession: The antidote to corporate failure’, Agokei posited that board evaluation is an integral part of an organization and serves as tool for corporate governance that will eventually lead the succession planning.

In his welcome address, the institute’s President and Chairman of the Governing Council, Samuel Kolawole who said that this year’s theme was a well-conceived topic in terms of its appropriateness and relevance to the present realities, noted that having evaluation and succession fused into the theme offers the opportunity to critically look into the two vital governance concepts both of which are necessary for navigating the corporate ship of organisations to success and sustainability.

One of the discussants, immediate past company secretary of First Bank Holdings (FBN) Alhaji Tijjani Borodo in his presentation described board evaluation as a process for evaluating a board’s performance against previously set objectives and goals towards enhancing shareholder value.

Borodo, in his presentation shared his over 25 years’ experience as a company secretary in the banking sector from where he retired. For good governance, he said that a succession plan or policy should be put in place.He said to ensure business sustainability, which is hinged on corporate governance, there has to be a conscious effort to make arrangements for situations when key management personnel leave, die or are indisposed and others readily groomed are able to continue the role.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the event, a member of the Board of the UBA Academy, Angela Aneke, said that board succession should not be based on shareholders’ largess but who meets up with requirements of being on the board. She added that it was important to have a diversified board as most boards mostly focus on chief executives succession.

Another lead discussant, new treasurer of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Prof Deji Olarewaju, noted that while serious attention is given to policy for a proper board succession, members above 70 years should not be found on the board, stating at age 70, board members do not have anything to deliver, stating that their brains are already gagged out.

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