RIMAN, CIBN charge certified risk managers on safety of organisations

Risk Managers Association of Nigeria (RIMAN) and the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) have inducted certified risk managers who qualified in 2020, challenging them on safety of their organisations.

The induction ceremony offers the inductees the opportunity to embrace the enterprise risk management for safety and sustainability of their various organisations.

With the latest induction, Nigeria has so far recorded 134 certified risk managers who participated in the professional exams. RIMAN and the CIBN commenced Certified Risk Manager (CRM) Professional Risk Management Examinations in April, 2016; the first of its kind in Nigeria and second in sub-Saharan Africa.

The first set of CRMs emerged in 2017 and were inducted on February 28th, 2018, being the first edition of the CRM induction. The second edition held on August 15, 2019; and the third edition held on November 7, 2020.

The recent and 4th edition held on March 27, 2021 with 21 Inductees was indeed, a continuation of the success story of the professional exams, which has produced 134 Certified Risk Managers in Nigeria.

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Speaking at the 4th edition of the Induction ceremony of the Certified Risk Managers (CRMs) that qualified in 2020, Lamin Manjang, managing director/ CEO of Standard Chartered Bank of Nigeria, noted the lockdowns of entire countries as efforts were made to contain the spread of the corona virus and what started as a health crisis quickly became an economic crisis. The price of oil plunged below $20 per barrel and most countries including Nigeria went into recession.

According to him, the health and economic crisis experienced entails both complexity and rapid change.

“As business executives, this requires us to both lead and manage effectively at the same time. For example, between when the lockdown occurred in Nigeria and all our bank branches were closed, we had to make immediate decisions to transition into working from home. Not all our staff were equipped to work from home, so we had to procure laptops to facilitate staff to be able to work from home. This is an aspect of managing through the crisis,” he said.

Lamin said leading through the crisis, though, entails looking at the long-term horizon and seeing how best to position the organization to take advantage of the opportunities that the crisis presents, while anticipating and dealing with the risk and challenges.

“Leading through the crisis requires people to take a long-term view, rather than just managing for the present. There is a lot of risk and ambiguity, as we witnessed through the covid-19 pandemic. As leaders, we should not try to control everything. It is important to determine which decisions can only be taken by you as a leader, and the rest you can delegate to others.”

However, he noted that there are those significant risks that can be catastrophic, resulting in major losses and can even threaten the survival of the organization. The 2008 global financial crisis and 2020 health and economic crisis both posed existential threats to many companies.

The 2008 financial crisis was very hard on the banks, while during this Covid-19 crisis, airlines and hospitality industry players were hard hit. It is these types of significant risks that give rise to the focus on strategic risk and strategic risk management.

In his remarks, Magnus Nnoka, president, RIMAN, said that in the last one year, most risk management professionals have faced unprecedented challenges. He said that the global business environment has also witnessed uncommon challenges as organizations are faced with unpredictable and crisis prune business environment with attendant risk ramifications; which is one of the reasons why the theme for this year’s Induction was deliberately picked.

“It would be safe to say that managing risk in current times requires going beyond normal approaches,” he added.

Bayo Olugbemi, president and Chairman of Council, CIBN, said that the services of risk managers are required to keep organizations safe and healthy as going concerns. He said that for Institutions to survive and remain afloat, the issue of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) must be elevated to the highest level. He challenged everyone to contribute their quota within their sphere of influence to ensure the safety, soundness and sustainability of various institutions, to imbibe the culture of risk as a way of life, not just as a function but everyone’s mantra should be, “everyone a Risk Manager”.

He challenged all organizations, individuals, Captains of Industries, Regulators and Policy makers to embrace the novel Certified Risk Management (CRM) Risk Management Certification Programme in view of the enormous benefits inherent in it for their organizations. He also challenged them to explore, drill and discover.