For organisations and businesses to be successful and sustainable, they need good corporate governance and the essential ingredients that will make that possible are transparency, accountability and communication, experts say.
As a system put in place by which organisations and businesses are directed and controlled, or how they are managed in the best interest of all stakeholders, short term, medium term and long term, corporate government is always difficult to build and, according to the experts, in Nigeria, it is twice as hard as anywhere else.
The experts, who gathered for the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) ‘Power of Connections Executive Breakfast Meeting’ in Lagos recently, point out that corporate governance starts with a personal commitment that will be replicated in any organisation or association.
“For corporate governance to be sustainable, it must become a culture within any organisation. Developing a culture is at the heart of ensuring that everyone in an organisation behaves in the right way. Whatever achievement is gotten without ethics and corporate governance operates on borrowed time,” Taiwo Oyedele, West Africa Tax leader at PwC, notes in his opening remarks at the meeting.
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The breakfast meeting was organised by ACCA in collaboration with Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) – the regulating agency of the Federal Government charged with promoting trade and investment in Nigeria by ensuring high quality financial reporting and promoting high standard of corporate governance in the public and private sectors.
The breakfast meeting was aimed to introduce the ACCA members to the new code of corporate governance and to highlight opportunities and challenges for the accounting profession, to drive an appreciation of, and an adherence to ethical conduct and practices.
Thomas Isibor, head of ACCA Nigeria, explains in his introductory speech that, in line with the theme of the meeting, ‘The Power of Connections,’ it also seeks to create wider opportunities for the accounting profession and ACCA members to set the standards that others follow and harness the power of connections.
“The world is going through changes, which are very rapid. A few years ago the talk was on globalisation and then it evolved into a global village. Today, the talk is on localisation and social community. However, the issue of Trust remains constant and consistent.
“For the corporate and business, trust is about the sustainability and protection of business. For individuals, it is about security, safety and data protection. Trust is sacred to ACCA and its members who are the heart of the business and economic management processes. ACCA supports any code of ethics, legislation, and code of corporate governance that enforces trust,” Isibor assures.
Daniel Asapokhai, executive secretary/CEO of FRCN, explains that the national code was about corporate governance, disclosing that the FRCN believes that true connections would create wider opportunities and move the world forward.
“The quality of corporate governance regulation affects the supply of capital to the real economy. It also influences how the capital is used by individual companies. Corporate governance regulation impacts key policy objectives of government such as the level of investment, productivity, growth, business sector dynamic and financial stability,” Asapokhai notes.
He points out that, as regulators, connections were critical to the success of the work and so FRCN treasured opportunities to connect and interact with business leaders, particularly on the topics of strong corporate governance and high quality financial reporting, adding that these two topics were critical underpinnings of the National Development Agenda and it captured the essence of the work done by the FRCN.
