Corporate Governance: Ntia, NNPCL new EVP Upstream, charges stakeholders - ITREALMS

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The NNPCL's new Executive Vice President, Upstream, Mr. Udobong Ntia, has called on upstream stakeholders in the nation’s oil and gas industry to strengthen corporate governance, transparency and efficiency in their operations.

Ntia, spoke during an Upstream Governance, Risk and Compliance Workshop themed “Enhancing Governance, Risk and Compliance in Nigeria’s Upstream Sector” held in Lagos, on Tuesday.

Corporate governance key to SMEs growth

ITRealms

Stakeholders have agreed that absence of corporate governance is the major hindrance to growth of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria, reports ITRealms.

They said that structure is a fundamental element of corporate governance that could catapult start-ups to the next level of business ladder wherein they would be able to attract funding as banks and equity investors are looking for scalable businesses that could guarantee return on investment.

The Chief Executive Officer, W-HBS Limited, a ManagementConsultancy firm that represents organizations prominently in financial matters, LanreOniyitan, addressing a gathering of start-ups, Thursday, at the quarterly SME Capacity Development Forum organized by the Republic Media Limited in Lagos, decried inability of start-ups which include kitchen and cottage businesses to build structures that would serve as roadmap for their businesses.

ITRealms gathered she told the audience that structure must include differentiating the business from the owner, having bank account that bears the business name, business process/manual/systems that define duties and keeps business going even in the absence of the owner, growth plan, predictability of where the company will be in next 10 years.

She said it is wrong to go to commercial banks for funding as start-ups because they have not built enough structure. Banks, she said, are looking for companies that can guarantee return on investment, saying that start-ups should organize themselves into cooperatives to be able to attract fund especially from Bank of Industry which could lend as much as half a billion Naira of SMEs.

She stressed that for a company to access the fund it must be able to affect farmers and the youth, adding that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)guarantees its SME to the tune of 50 per cent and expect the company to collaterize the rest 50 per cent.

As part of the Corporate Governance, she told ITRealms that payroll must be consistent as investors and lenders are equally after such details. She also said that in such fund one must not ask for too much or too little, stressing that one must engage a professional financial consultant to be able to package the vision of the start-up to be able to access fund.

Speaking on Alternative Security Market, Mohammed A. Mohammed , representing Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) said the bane of SME include lack of corporate governance, poor management , absence of visibility study, inexistent accounting system, lack of business and succession plans.Other sources of hindrance to SME growth are inconsistent government policy, lack of basic infrastructure, security and accessing funds at cutthroat rates.

He also spoke on the criteria for listing in the stock exchange and guide to alternative finance which include approaching a Growth Ambassador who would tell potential canditates that it is achievable, institutional service providers, structuring the business into departments, staff structure, and a turnover that is up to N50 million a year.

A representative of AIICO Insurance, OlusolaAjayi stressed the importance of insurance even as he advised start-ups to take up certain covers like fire and burglary, good life, children education, pension for corporate risk management just as the Managing Director, TFS Finance Limited, Mr. Eddie Osarenkoe, addressed the issue of strategy in business.

The convener of the Forum and Managing Director, The Republic Media Limited, Mr. Monday Ashibogwu, told participants at the event with the theme “Tackling Challenges with Emerging Opportunities” explored potentials in Small Business Funding, and advised SMEs to buildfinancial inclusive business to be able to attract funding.

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE

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Board politics force Lawson to step aside as Ecobank chairman

ITRealms:

Barely 61 days to his retirement, the Board of Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), may have forced it's else while chairman, Kolapo Lawson to step aside, following reports of breach of corporate governance in the bank under his leadership.

“As the head of such a respected global institution, I must act when there is even the slightest perception that the interests of that institution might be at risk. I therefore step aside as Chairman of Ecobank Transnational,” he declared.

ITRealms confirmed that Lawson is due for retirement by December 31, 2013 and has handed over to André Siaka as interim chairman with immediate effect.

Official statement to this effect from Ecobank quoted Mr. Lawson as confirming that the last few months have seen huge pressure on the organisation, and on him personally over allegations of mismanagement leveled against him to the Nigerian Security and Exchange Commission (SEC).

“These have culminated in allegations, which are untrue, made to the Nigerian SEC on issues of corporate governance. During this time, I led constructive discussions on the need for independent review of these allegations. The board has now taken the necessary decisions to appoint independent parties who, I am confident will investigate these allegations and review our corporate governance with the utmost professionalism. In order to give total credibility to these reviews, I have decided it would not be appropriate for me to be the person leading this process. The Board has assured me of its commitment to seeing these investigations through and I will continue to monitor this as an interested party,” he said.

Lawson also lamented that current media speculations cast over the institution, hence, he accepted to take the necessary steps to bring this to an end.

In his acceptance remarks on behalf of the Board, Mr. Siaka described Kolapo Lawson as a loyal servant of Ecobank for many years, who has played a major part in shaping the successful organization.

“His family is inseparable from Ecobank and Kolapo’s contribution to Ecobank is second to none: over twenty years, as a director of Ecobank Nigeria, of Ecobank Togo and of ETI, he has made a truly outstanding contribution to this great pan-African company. He has our very sincere thanks for all of his hard work and commitment, his leadership and his good company,” Siaka said.

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Pix: Kolapo Lawson, ousted chairman of Ecobank

Company Sizes not condition for corporate governance says NCC

*DNSSEC Roadshow ends in Lagos (Test)

The size of a company is not condition for corporate governance says the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

Speaking in Lagos at a forum on corporate governance by the Commission and Lagos Business School, the Executive Commissioner, Stakeholders Management, Hon. Okey Itanyi made this know to participants of the one-day event.

According to him, NCC is determined to promote good governance in the nation’s telecommunications sector, hence the event, adding that all types of companies operating in the industry whether public or private, large or small, as the requirement for good corporate governance does not wane on account of size or type of business affiliation.

Meanwhile, DNSSEC Roadshow has ended in Lagos, the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria.

The three-day Roadshow on Domain Name System Security Extension (DNSSEC) ended in Lagos, with the President of the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA), Mrs. Mary Uduma commending participants.

She said it offered Nigerians the opportunity to learn more on DNSSEC and for the techies and hands-on, especially on Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) cum Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRT).

“We are excited that decision makers across industries, including registrants, registrars, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), the Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government, were part of this 2013 roadshow, which came to Nigeria, courtesy of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), especially Mr. Richard Lamb who facilitated the roadshow.

 

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Juwah explains NCC’s interest in corporate governance

Dr. Eugene Juwah, EVC, NCC

The Executive Vice Chairman (EVC), Nigerian Commissions Commission (NCC), Dr. Eugene Juwah has given some insights why the Commission choose to host a forum on corporate governance.

Juwah who was represented at the occasion in Lagos by the Executive Commissioner, Stakeholders, Mr. Ifeanyi Itanyi, in his address, last weekend, noted that the essential elements under this consideration include the organisational know-how, managerial talent and compliance with standards, processes and procedures of players in the telecommunications sector.

"We would like to start by first looking at compliance with standards and, in particular, processes and procedures from which every other corporate governance question is simply a derivative," he said.

NCC, he said, is particularly critical of regulatory failure that could arise from negligence of those organizational responsibilities.

This disposition, he said, goes further concerning the sharing of infrastructures and in the efficient use of other scarce resources in its market regulation efforts.

"This now leads us to the concept and practice of corporate governance," he declared.

Juwah cited the Sir Adrian Cadbury, the Ethics Prize Winner’s definition of corporate governance, which places demands on NCC to setup and continuously monitor the ethical framework within which those who run telecommunications companies in Nigeria should operate.

"Responsibility for decisions, therefore, will run through both ends of the spectrum, that is, the board and management," he said, stressing that operating companies have to take account of its responsibilities to industry in decision making, but the industry, through the regulator, has to accept its responsibilities for setting the standards against which those decisions are made.

Therefore, he revealed the reason behind the forum, saying it’s expected to shape the behavioural relationships through which telecommunications companies are directed and controlled.

Remmy Nweke

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Ndukwe calls for adoption of corporate governance in ICT sector

Dr. Ndukwe, former EVC, NCC

Chairman of Open Media Group, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe has called for the adoption of good governance by organizations in the country, especially within the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector in the country.

Ndukwe made this call at a one-day stakeholders’ management forum on corporate governance in Nigerian telecommunications industry – compliance with standards, processes and procedures, which held in Lagos at the weekend.

He said that at this era, organizational survival depends on corporate governance based on transparency.

“There is need for adoption of good governance of organizational survival,” he declared, saying that there are some goals for corporate governance.

He also said the primary responsibility of senior executives and directors’ of organizations includes running the affairs of the organization in an efficient manner.

Governance, he said, is more than rules and regulation but all encompassing to include accountabilities, regulations, such that every staff is made to understand and work towards achieving it.

Dr. Ndukwe pointed out that corporate governance is about making a business successful, which depends on management capacity to create value from human capital assets and less so on technology assets.

He described human assets as the biggest assets of every organization, therefore, he advised companies to take the concerns of their employees at heart, while admonishing employees to be upright and assist in building veritable companies that are sustainable.

He further advised companies to go beyond Know Your Customers (KYC) by adding ‘Very Well’ which entails that companies need to know their customers very well.

Some of the international character of corporate governance, he said, entails the degree to which regulators insist that operators within it’s industry observe basic principles of good governance, saying this is an important part of the principle.

He emphasised that the classical principles of corporate governance are transparency and accountability.

Ndukwe maintained that all stakeholders have significant roles to play, namely investors, shareholders association, auditors, professional association, Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), regulators, employees, and customers.

“So it’s a collaborative effect to ensure sustainability,” he said, noting there are some failure analysis that must be taken into cognizance.

These, he said, include enabling investigations into corporate governance scandals by way of providing relevant support, insisting that every board in order to avoid failure must have significant role to play.

Corporate governance in the Nigerian telecoms sector, he said, must be sub-optimal, stressing that some failure pointers, encompass delays in meeting financial obligations, delays in filing statutory reports and returns, quality of staff representatives at events, and non-attendance or low attendance at industry events.

He said, corporate governance framework without enough money, would likely hinder regulatory output, insisting that stakeholders, must have a sense of belonging so as to work together, but that does not mean bad attitudes should be condoned. 

“Yet self regulation is encouraged,” he said.

By ensuring the basis for sound corporate governance, he said, would improve transparency, keep the regulator well informed, openly admitting to customers of shortcomings and stating measures bring taken to correct same.

“These are so critical for transparency.  We need to be interactive with our customers,” he said.

 
Remmy Nweke

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