$1trn Economy Achievable In 5 Years – IoD

The Financial Reporting Council has said it will commence sanctioning private and public entities that violate the code of corporate governance in the country, this is as the chairman of the Institute of Directors Centre for Corporate Governance said Nigeria can reach the $1 trillion economy target if institutions abide by the right structures and code.

Speaking at the two days National Corporate Governance Summit held in Lagos, the IOD CCG chair, Dr UK Eke affirmed that building Nigeria into a N1 trillion economy is possible if things are done right.

Stressing the need to bring both the private and public sector into the corporate governance ecosystem, he said “it is not just about the public sector, or the private sector, but making it all inclusive so that together we are focused on each in our own corner trying to create the right governance structures that will make this economy truly transformed.

“We believe very strongly that we can hit the $1 trillion economy in about five years. All we need is to build the right structure. The federal government, through the Ministry of Finance Incorporated, has assets under management that are over $40 trillion. Imagine what that means.

“Now, this is without the right governance structures. Think about corporatising the public entities. Think about corporatizing the railway, the airport, the seaports, the highways, and then creating the right governance structure. Then we can easily exceed the benchmark $1 trillion economy.”

On his part, the chief executive of the FRC, Dr Rabiu Olowo noted that The council as a regulator is working to ensure that corporate governance is deepened in organisations.

“When I came in August last year, the first company we sanctioned was a government entity, sending the signal to the private sector that we are coming because it doesn’t happen.

“So we are moving away from the hard issues when it comes to corporate governance such as do you have a board. We are going to the soft issues such as diversity on board, commitment to you value executive compensation, ESG. And that is why we are recruiting independent corporate governance reviewers. We are looking for experts both in public and private to join our monitoring and evaluation team so that we can deepen the level and scope of what we do.”