Forum

Could it be that President Muhammadu Buhari will be shown in the end to have been a wise old owl in his approach to restarting governance after a period of reckless spending by his predecessors? They left Nigeria in serious financial difficulty despite a decade of unprecedented levels of earning. He has now delayed the […]

As with every relationship, conflicts are an inalienable fact of life that also feature in boardrooms. A conflict in itself is not necessarily bad as it signifies that board members express independent thinking. It is in resolving conflicts that the rubber meets the road.

By May 29, 2015 when the Goodluck Jonathan administration expired, fuel queues had returned and people feared the worst for Buhari’s first few months in office. The people groaned under the last bits of Jonathan’s rule as Nigeria was slowly being brought to its knees by fuel importers with a score to settle with the […]

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) or corporate responsibility, sustainable development, global citizenship, corporate citizenship, values-driven business or whatever moniker is used is a contemporary business reality that is here to stay. The rise in global digital connectivity has increased stakeholders’ ability to scrutinize and punish companies who fail to meet expectations of corporate responsibility.

So far, our approach to combating corruption as a nation has failed because it doesn’t reflect the systemic, endemic and pervasive nature of the problem. For what is essentially a societal problem involving the private sector, public sector, civil society, and the public in general, we have charged only the public sector with curbing it […]

News of Nigeria’s drug and food regulating agency (NAFDAC) sealing off Chocolate Royale due to the discovery of expired products in its stock holdings has recently featured in the news. In a statement, NAFDAC’s spokesman, Anslem Okonkwor, said the agency sealed off Chocolate Royale “for various unethical practices and non-adherence to good manufacturing and hygienic […]

Most corporate governance codes stipulate that companies shall establish whistle-blower policies. It is imperative for companies to note that a good whistle-blowing policy should provide a legitimate way for stakeholders to voice concerns they might have, as well as offer whistle-blowers protection from victimization, harassment, grievance or disciplinary policies and procedures. Types of disclosures that […]

Policy making in Nigeria is typically dominated by the political imperatives of “palliatives” and “quick fixes”. Without palliatives the people rapidly lose interest, lose hope and turn against their political heroes. Without quick fixes, the opposition finds it easy to attack the performance of a new government and shake the faith of the electorate leading […]

With about 20 plus days to the much-awaited inauguration of Buhari & Osinbajo respectively as President and Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, given the current realities of Nigeria’s economy, there is growing debate in various circles over what this might mean for business. Will the next 4 years be a time of real […]

The need to manage risk is an essential part of good corporate governance practice and risk based internal audit is an approach that internal auditors can take to support management in mitigating business risk.  The UK Institute of Chartered Internal Auditing defines risk based internal auditing (RBIA) as a methodology that links internal auditing to […]

Top 4 accounting KPMG recently announced a woman, Lynne Doughtie as the Chief Executive Officer. This follows Deloitte who named Cathy Engelbert as the CEO earlier this year.  Does this signal a growing awareness of the benefits of having women in the highest positions in corporations or is this just the action of a few […]

Ideally directors’ remuneration should achieve two aims, it should motivate superior performance and should lead a director to behave in a way that is beneficial to the long-term interest of shareholders. How to achieve this is a delicate balancing act and the need to balance incentives through appropriate remuneration becomes more acute as there is […]

The UN Global Compact’s (UNGC) 10th principle on Anti- Corruption states “Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery.”   UNGC further suggests elements that companies may consider in implementing the 10th principle. The first of these elements is to address the “Internal” by introducing anti-corruption programs (ACP) within an organization and […]

In order to comply with relevant codes of corporate governance, most public organizations have the token independent director on the board. What is the role and significance of the independent director? Whose interests do independent directors protect and are independent directors truly independent? First a definition, an independent director is one who is brought in […]

Source: Fund for Peace The chart above demonstrates the long-term trends, year-to-year, for the Social and Economic Indicators for Nigeria. Upward movements represent worsening trends, while downward movements represent improving trends.

In its 2013 report, the Africa Progress Panel led by Kofi Annan estimated that Africa loses twice as much in illicit financial flows as it receives in international aid. This is one of many snippets of fact about the huge costs of corruption on Africa and on Nigeria in particular. It is important that businesses […]

It is usually surprising when one reads through the excessive Newspaper adverts to congratulate political officers, their family members or other politically exposed persons on their birthdays. They are usually hailed for being the chairman/founder of a number of companies, many of which were hitherto unheard of or have no verifiable history even in high-profile […]

A recent business headline in the newspapers reported that foreign investors pulled N846.5 billion from the Nigerian Stock Exchange as a reaction to the uncertainty about the Nigerian economy arising from the cocktail of falling oil prices, a massively depreciating Naira and fears of post-election violence. Similarly, the share price of some financial institutions is […]