FRC to sanction private, public entities violating corporate governance code

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has announced plans to sanction private and public entities that violate the country’s corporate governance code.

Speaking at a two-day national corporate governance summit held in Lagos, Rabiu Olowo, FRC’s chief executive officer, said the council as a regulator is working to ensure that corporate governance is deepened in organisations.

“When I came in last year August, 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,” Olowo said.

“So we are moving away from the hard issues when it comes to corporate governance. We are going to the soft issues such as diversity on board, commitment to your value executive compensation 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.”

Also speaking, UK Eke, chairman of the Institute of Directors Centre for Corporate Governance (IoDCCG), said Nigeria can reach the $1 trillion economy target if institutions abide by the right structures and code.

Eke said building Nigeria into a $1 trillion economy is possible if things are done right.

Stressing the need to bring both the private and public sectors into the corporate governance ecosystem, he said it is about inclusivity, ensuring that both sectors work together to establish the right governance structures that will lead to genuine economic transformation.

“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, have assets under management that is over $40 trillion were told. Imagine what that means,” Eke said.

“Now, this is without the right governance structures. Think about corporatizing the public entities. Think about corporatising 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 October 23, 2023, President Bola Tinubu told the business community that Nigeria’s economy could grow to $1 trillion by 2026.