Businesses tasked on corporate governance

Stakeholders have said that growing trends such as board diversity, inclusion, cybersecurity, data management and digitisation, are evolving as new policies and practices that businesses have to adopt.

They said this at the annual Corporate Governance Conference in Lagos, themed ‘digital, diversity, and inclusion: Evolving trends in governance and board culture’.

The event was a gathering of various stakeholders, sharing insights aimed at promoting proper board structure, composition, and compliance by accepting and adopting critical trends – digital trends, diversity, and inclusion.

How to integrate these factors in corporate governance is “simultaneously bringing in the new world to restore the balance of the old, while still being clear about the rules that exist,” Olufemi Lijadu, board chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), said.

Speaking on the essence of corporate governance, Emma Fitzgerald, CEO, Puma Energy International, said it was a concept that all sectors must embrace for increased productivity.

“Corporate governance must be seen as something which works across all sectors; not just banks, not just multinationals,” Fitzgerald said.

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Godwin Emefiele, the CBN governor, in a keynote address read by a representative director, said corporate governance practice should be at the heart of every organisation’s goals, and be sustainable, to ensure that proper corporate practice and culture is achieved to facilitate effective governance.

“Two other things that are fast becoming integral to the success of a modern-day organisation are diversity and inclusion, which are complementary ideas that achieve the same objective,” Emefiele said.

Also, Escher Luanda, immediate past president, Namibia Institute of Corporate Governance, said: “Any organisation that adopts these critical trends will without a doubt, outperform its peers for the singular reason that diversity embraces a multiplicity of ideas”.

Corporate governance, according to professionals, is an efficient management of resources in line with the goals of the company, society, and in compliance with rules.

They said corporate governance was about values. “Nobody likes to be regulated, but we (the commission) like to regulate the right way,” Lijadu added.

The Society for Corporate Governance Nigeria (SCGN), organisers of the event, are research undertakers, insights and data utilisers, to establish an ethical corporate culture in Nigeria.