A total of four hundred and sixty-one individuals have been inducted into the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administration of Nigeria, ICSAN.

Three hundred and forty-four were inducted as Associates, while one hundred and seventeen as Graduates at the Institute’s twenty-first induction of members.

In his welcome address, President and Council Chairman, Taiwo Owokalade said the obligation of conducting induction was conferred on ICSAN by the enabling statute, the ICSAN Act Cap. I13 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, which empowers the Institute to admit various candidates, after rigorous training and practical experiences, into various cadres of membership of ICSAN.

According to him, today, we gather here to discharge this statutory obligation through a formal admission of new aspiring members of the professions into the coveted membership fold of ICSAN.

He congratulated all the inductees of today both those who passed through the conventional route and those who scaled through via Fasttrack membership scheme, saying the former having undergone our rigorous training, passed the examinations and scaled through the ethical integrity scrutiny and the latter, having amassed credible experience over the years as seasoned governance practitioners and having also scaled through the Institute’s examination and thorough screening.

In his words, ICSAN is a leading, statutorily established professional body, dedicated to enhancing the status and practice of Corporate Governance and Public Administration. It is the only professional body authorised in Nigeria to conduct the examinations leading to the qualification as Chartered Secretaries and Administrators.

Although ICSAN started in Nigeria in 1944 as an associate of the international body based in Britain, it elected its first president in 1966, that was about 55 years ago. ICSAN became Chartered by Decree 19 of 1991 (Now Act CAP I13 LFN 2004.
ICSAN is a member of the Corporate Secretaries International Association (CSIA), a global organization originally registered in Geneva, but now in Hong Kong, and dedicated to developing the study / practice of Secretaryship and Administration to improve professional standards, the quality of governance practice and organizational performance. The Association is the global voice of Corporate Secretaries and Governance Professionals.
Over the years, we have consistently promoted the ideals of Corporate Governance through periodic issuance of policy papers and Guidance materials on Corporate and Public Administration.
For the past 55 years that we have been in existence, we have regularly produced seasoned professionals who had contributed their quota to the nation’s economic advancement. Many of our members are at present occupying various responsible and enviable positions across the whole gamut of Nigeria’s socio-economic life.
Chartered Secretaries are highly skilled professionals who are respected for the depth of their knowledge, competences, versatility, mastery and adeptness in a broad range of fields including law, accounting, finance, management, governance and secretarial practices.
To the two categories of inductees being admitted to our membership today, there are a lot that are expected from you by many stakeholders. I want to tell you that your membership demonstrates that you are committed to the high professional standards expected of all ICSAN members worldwide. Your continuing membership is dependent upon the maintenance of those standards. It therefore behoves you to keep striving both in the area of continuous education and on the issue of adherence to values and ethics.
Furthermore, it is not by coincidence that we chose “Entrenching the value of ethics a Governance Professional in the Nigerian Business terrain “as the theme of today’s Induction lecture, it is a reflection of the emphasis placed on the concept of ethics by the Institute.
It is trite that overwhelming majorities of problems besetting Nigeria to day emanated from dearth of ethical of integrity and uprightness in the land.
We take the issue of ethics very highly at the Institute. Chartered Secretaries are highly regarded professionals and this is a reputation we are most disinclined to take with levity. Any member found guilty of gross misconduct in defiance of dictates of ethics will have his or her membership withdrawn.
This Induction Lecture of today will be delivered by a seasoned Corporate Governance specialist and the head of a major regulatory agency in Nigeria, Financial Reporting Council (FRC), in the person of the Executive Secretary of the Commission, Ambassador Shuaibu Adamu Ahmed, FCA.
I want you all to listen attentively to this lecture with a view to extract precepts and guiding principles to aid you in your professional and even personal life.
Let me reiterate membership of ICSAN offers a lot of advantages. As a member of the Institute, a number of benefits accrue to you, these include the following:

Right to vote and be voted for at the Institute’s Annual General Meetings; you can also volunteer to work in any Committee of the Institute for which you have capacity and experience and you may, in future, seek election into the Governing Council itself.
The right to attend all the Institute’s programs like Annual Conferences, Annual Public Lecture, Mandatory Continuous Professional Education (MCPE), Roundtable on Corporate Governance etc. at a discounted rate vis-à-vis amount payable by non-members.
Access to educational materials and learning tools, including informative and enlightening resources in the library.
Privilege to join the ICSAN members WhatsApp platform from today which provides opportunities for you to network and seek advice on any controversial professional issues, free of charge
Access to regular notifications on vacancies for jobs in diverse sectors of the economy. I have the pleasure to add that many of our Members have already taken advantage of this opportunities offered by these privileged notifications.
Right to Life Assurance Scheme which is available to all financially up-to-date members.
Right to apply for the Practice Licence granted by the Institute which empowers the grantee to set a up a public practice firm and operate as an independent Corporate Secretarial and Governance Professional in Public Practice.
The last but not the least is the Institute’s Governance Practitioner Trainee Scheme. This is a platform to give fresh graduates of the Institute the opportunity to acquire hands-on experience in Corporate Governance and other allied fields in reputable companies and organisation in Nigeria. The Registrar will give more details about this in her own address.

The other side of the coin is the responsibilities that devolve on you as a member of the Institute We shall continue to count on your support, dedication and collaboration in diverse ways, specifically as you:
Update your membership data with the Institute.
Participate in the Institute’s programmes
Network with other members without grade barriers.
Fulfill your moral and financial obligations to the Institute
Perform all you duties and responsibilities with level of professionalism and expertise expected of a Governance Professional.
Be good ambassadors of the Institute.
I urge you to embrace the practice of participating in the Institute’s programme such as, Annual Conferences, Annual Public Lecture, Governance Practitioners Days, Round Table on Corporate Governance, Companies Secretaries and Registrars’ Forum as well as MCPE.
Participation in MCPE is not only good in itself by furnishing opportunity to expand the scope of knowledge and competencies, it is also a pre-requisite for upgrade as well as constituting one of the criteria for becoming members of our various committees and even the Council itself.
Before I end this address, I want to make a couple of announcements. The first announcement on the ICSAN new stamp. ICSAN has recently launched her new stamp. The ICSAN stamp is an object to be used for authentication of formal documents by members of the Institute. The stamp is sold for N3000 a sheet. A sheet of stamps has 20 stamps on it. The stamps are available for sale at this venue, make sure you get your own copies before leaving this venue.
The other announcement is on the Institute’s Practice Licence which I have already mentioned briefly under the benefits accruable from ICSAN membership. I am proud to inform you that the Institute strongly encourages massive application by members for her Practice Licence which empowers the grantee to set a up a public practice firm and operate as an independent Corporate Secretarial and Governance Professional in Public Practice. If you are at least an Associate of the Institute and you have requisite experience, please apply for our Practice Licence and a whole world of opportunities will be open to you.
Executive Secretary, Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, Ambassador Shuaibu Ahmed delivered the induction lecture: Entrenching The Values And Ethics of a Governance Professional in the Nigerian Business Terrain.
He said though entrenching values and ethics as a governance professional is a veritable tool for national growth and development, the assurance for its effectiveness and efficiency is only achievable when it is in the DNA of a Governance Professional as a person, and institutionalized by organizations.
Ahmed said they expect the inductee to strive to adopt, implement and comply with best practice corporate governance and ethical values as they join the esteemed Institute, ICSAN today, asking them to be assured that the Institute will firmly support them as it will continue to support their education, training and development and will also continually share knowledge, information, strategies, and experiences in global corporate governance practices and ethical values.
According to him, the Institute will also create opportunities for networking with international and local corporate governance professionals, saying in the long term, Nigeria will benefit immensely from their strong values and ethics as a governance professional.
In his words, the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, will support them in their sojourn as Governance Professionals, as they function as professionals engaged in the Financial Reporting process.
The Institute has come a long way, from its humble beginnings in 1988 to be one of the leading and recognized professional body in Nigeria, dedicated to enhancing the status and practice of Corporate Governance and Public Administration in all sectors of business. Indeed, ICSAN is the only professional body authorized in Nigeria to conduct the examinations leading to the qualification of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators.
The Institute is in the process of rebranding, after which it will be known as the Corporate Governance Institute in line with its peers and sister organizations in other parts of the world. So, it is indeed an apt time to join the Institute, as it strengthens its efforts to champion not only the cause of Secretaryship and Administrator professions, but also that of Corporate Governance.
No doubt all of you participating in the induction of today have experienced the rigours and training involved in the ICSAN membership qualification process, and you are proud to be here today as inductees of ICSAN. You are full of high expectations as you reckon what the future holds for you as a Governance Professional, now that you are about to be inducted as a member of the Institute.
Rest assured that you will not be disappointed inasmuch as you play your part effectively and shortly, post-induction, you become a legally recognized Governance Professional. This paper will therefore highlight those areas that you need to pay attention to in order to be successful as a Governance Professional.
Success as a Chartered Secretary, an Administrator, or a Governance Professional is underpinned by 3 factors which you should all seek to reflect as part of your core character and which your various organizations must also institutionalize. These are: Imbibing laudable values as a person and a governance professional.
Being guided by good codes of ethics, upholding good corporate governance and ethical values.
Interestingly, these factors, which I shall elaborate on in this paper, are also prerequisites for building sustainable companies and nations. They help to actualize goals and objectives for Governance Professionals, for businesses in Nigeria, and for national development.
IMBIBING LAUDABLE VALUES.
Values have been defined as basic attributes that an individual or organization believes are vitally important for success, and as such are ideals to which the individual or organization continually strives to attain and practice.
YOUR VALUES AS A PERSON
You are first of all a person before a Governance Professional. As such, your values as a person are important and should improve your skills and abilities. Your personal values should support the goals and objectives that you wish to attain in the short, medium and long term. They should also correlate with the attributes that are espoused by your employers and are seen as best practice. That way, you create a synergy that propels you to reach for the stars, get there, and ensure you stay there.
For example, suppose you have a goal of being a Managing Director of a multinational within the next 10 years. If that is your goal, then your values should include attributes such as being a visionary, ability to communicate clearly and precisely, good social skills, empathy, humility, passion and commitment and respect. These values or good attributes will help you to reach your goal. They are also valuable to all organizations and multinationals, as such they correlate and will create a synergy between your values and that of your organization, helping to foster a win win scenario for you, your company, and Nigeria as a whole.
PROFESSIONAL VALUES AS GOVERNANCE PROFESSIONAL
Like your personal values, your professional values should also lead to your goals and objectives and should correlate with that of your company. Your professional values as a Governance Professional can and should guide your decision-making process in a variety of situations, but only if you make them a core part of your being and adhere to them.
For instance, as Directors and members of Senior Management in your organizations, it is expected that you exhibit certain qualities at all times, including values such as:
Faithfulness, diligence, carefulness, and skillfulness
Loyalty and good faith
Obedience to relevant laws and regulations
Acting only within your due powers
Promoting the success of the company
Exercising self-control and restraint when and where necessary
Avoiding conflicts of interest with that of the company’s interest
Avoiding secret profits
Exercising independent judgement.
Declaring any conflicts of interest.
Not engaging in wrongful trading, that is, allowing the company to carry on trading when you know (or ought to know) that it is insolvent.
Not to act with intent to defraud creditors or for any other fraudulent purpose
Dressing appropriately
Punctuality
Politeness and respect for others
Discretion and confidentiality
Honesty
Personal responsibility
(CAMA 2020, Sections 278, 279, 282, 295, 306, Nigerian Code of Corporate Governance (NCCG) 2018 Principles 24/25).
These professional values will ensure your success as a governance professional, and will also be immensely valuable to your companies and the country as a whole.
So far, we have now considered the importance of personal and professional values, but what is the relationship between all these and your companies; and also, to Nigeria at the macroeconomic level, you might ask? Let us now consider the bigger picture.
ENTRENCHING THE VALUES OF GOVERNANCE PROFESSIONALS IN BUSINESSES
In order to entrench the aforementioned values in Governance Professionals in businesses, the following strategies must be taken serious by both professionals, companies, and the country at large in their governance:
Training and Development
Training and development is a critical means to impart good values and ethics on governance professionals. For instance, in the training process for you to qualify as a member of ICSAN, you had trainings in Corporate Governance, and you were taught a lot of things concerning ethics. Companies need to continue to encourage and mandate their employees to undergo different forms of training that will help to imbibe and continually reinforce good values in their employees. These forms of trainings include:
Professional trainings like the one ICSAN provides
Orientation training: As the name suggests, Orientation Trainings will help to correct deficiencies in the thinking and attitudes of professionals so that they fit in well into the Company’s value system.
Onboarding training: Companies should provide this at the point when the professional joins the company. It helps to assists the employees settle in easily into the company.
Technical skills training: This should include specific trainings on skills required by employees to function properly in their positions. For management staff and directors, these technical skills will include governance, values, and ethical trainings and retraining as they are specific skills required for them to perform effectively.
Soft skills training: These will include skills that professionals may not directly require to achieve their day-to-day duties, but are nonetheless very crucial for effectiveness and efficiency. They include communication skills and trainings on social skills, emotional intelligence, values and ethics.
Product or service training: Product or service training help train professionals to be more knowledgeable about the products and services offered by their companies. In order to fully promote the products and services, professionals will also be trained to ancillary qualities required such as courage, honesty, trust, respect for others.
Compliance training: This involves training professionals on regulations, laws, policies and statues required by both internal and external stakeholders. Compliance trainings necessarily should be accompanied with foundational trainings on need for honesty, comprehensiveness, completeness, accuracy, integrity, confidentiality, and loyalty.
Managerial and leadership training involves training professionals on how to be good, effective, and result oriented leaders. It includes trainings on strategy, governance, ethics, values, administration, and communication skills.
All the foregoing trainings should be regular, and sponsorship provided as much as possible.
Continuing Professional Education: Even after being inducted into a professional institute like ICSAN, you have to take your continuing professional education very seriously. This helps you to stay up to date with recent developments in technical skills, values and ethics of the profession, and general leadership skills required for you to succeed in your careers.
Sponsorship of Professional Institution Memberships by Companies: Companies should show that they take values and ethics seriously by sponsoring the annual subscription of their professionals and staff who belong to various professional institutions and associations. This helps the employees to meet up with their financial obligations as members of the professional institutions, and assists them to continually learn modern skills in their professions and imbibe good values and ethics on a consistent basis.
Meritorious Employment Processes: Employment processes based on merit is fundamental to getting professionals who have the right values and ethics. When employment is based on merit, trainings and professional development of such staff will be much more effective and efficient since the staff already has a foundation that aligns with that of the Company.
Regular and comprehensive Performance Appraisals: Performance appraisals serve to identify how well professionals have performed in various aspects of their roles and identifies where they need to improve. Performance appraisals should not be an opportunity for supervisors or managers to witch hunt others. Regular performance appraisals supports staff to develop the right attitudes required for optimal performance, including respect for team members, support of and for team members, punctuality, and sticking to plans and routines.
Performance Appraisals having good values and ethics as core components: In order to effectively entrench values and ethics in professionals, performance appraisals should have core components that includes metrics that reflect values such as punctuality, honesty, reliability, innovativeness, accuracy, integrity etc.
National policies that encourage training: Entrenching the values and ethics of governance professionals must also be actively encouraged at the national level. For example, the Federal Government of Nigeria refunds up to 50% of approved and expended training budgets of companies through the Industrial Training Fund. These kind of national policies should be encouraged, especially for trainings that promote good values and ethics.
Membership of Professional Bodies: Membership of professional bodies like ICSAN, ICAN (Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria), ANAN (Association of National Accountants of Nigeria), CIBN (Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria), ACCA (Association of Certified Chartered Accountants), IOD (institute of Directors), are fundamental to promote values and ethics as they all have ethical codes and values that they require their members to attain and abide by. Government should therefore regularly encourage these professional bodies by seeking their inputs in government policies and programs, adopting such inputs, supporting them with subventions and grants, employing their members for positions and responsibilities across all government functions, positions, and levels, and providing support requested by these bodies.
I have no doubt that if professionals, companies, and the government imbibe all the foregoing strategies on a consistent basis, good values and ethics expected of governance professionals will certainly be entrenched in the Nigerian business environment and government institutions also.
From the foregoing it should be obvious that there is a nexus between values and national development. Government recognizes this nexus, hence its support of training initiatives as expounded above.
But let us now explore this relationship between values and national development further, so as to establish a clear link between good values and national develop. This will further assist professionals, companies and government officials to entrench the values and ethics of governance professionals in their companies and organizations.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN VALUES AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Alex Kuffour (2016) is among notable authors who have espoused the relationship between values and national development. Others like Gregory Clark (Inequality of Culture, 2008) have asserted that the Industrial Revolution which occurred in Britain (1760 – 1840) was mainly influenced by dynamic changing values in the society.
During the industrial revolution, the principle of Rule of Law was paramount in England and was enunciated through the document referred to as Magna Carta. This legal document was enunciated and implemented in the 13th Century between the King of England and his subjects, and signaled a defining moment in the history of England. It recognized the important principle of the Rule of Law as a fundamental value system in the governmental system of England, to which all individuals, businesses, and even the King must abide with.
So, what lessons can be learnt from the industrial revolution in the context of its relevance to values, ethics, business growth and national development?
LESSONS FROM THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
The Industrial Revolution depended on people accumulating money and investing it in new businesses that required large investments to get started. For instance, money needed to purchase machinery to run a factory. The people trusted that a government would not swoop in and seize their property; otherwise, people with money would have been tempted to leave it in vaults in the form of gold or silver bullion (bulk forms of these metals), as they had during the medieval period (Stenton, Doris Mary. “Magna Carta”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 31 Aug. 2021, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Magna-Carta. Accessed 15 July 2022).
In England especially, the idea of limits on government power had taken root and grown ever since King John signed the Magna Carta, which reduced the powers of the king and gave aristocrats a voice in government. For the English, the idea of sharing power between the ruler and the ruled had become deeply ingrained. The King ruled by the consent of the people – a principle which was considered sacred and inviolable.
The Magna Carta proposed important conditions that were listed as necessary for economic growth and development. These include good governance, a stable political system, Rule of Law and incorruptible and autonomous public institutions. Although these conditions in themselves may not automatically result in national economic growth and development, they are crucial building blocks.
These crucial building blocks became important societal values which ensured the success of the Industrial Revolution. Values enshrined in the Magna Carta can be seen to include equal justice, equal opportunity, and equal dignity without discrimination. These were to be espoused by every citizen and business entity of England.
In like manner, in our today’s world and the topic under consideration, they are an essential component of professional values which serve as building blocks for business growth and national development. It will be noteworthy to cite a few references and reflect on a case study on values and nation building.
Max Weber (Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, 1905) alluded to critical social ingredients of capitalism in the Western World as hard work, thrift and the aggressive pursuit of wealth.
The case study of Amy Chua (World on Fire, 2003) of Chinese in the Philippines provides a capstone that elucidates the relationship between values, culture, and development. Amy asserts that there is a high correlation between values (as exemplified by culture) and development. She concludes that even though the ethnic Chinese in the Philippines constitute only 2% of the population they control 60% of the nation’s private economy including four national airlines, all the country’s banks, hotels and shipping lines. It is therefore suggested that they possess the intrinsic cultural values of hard work, a spirit of competitiveness and a strong work ethic which has been the bedrock of the Chinese economic success, globally.
Clearly, as seen from the foregoing, there is a high correlation between the values espoused by a society and the development of that society. But what has been the Nigerian experience in this regard?
VALUES AND NATION BUILDING: THE NIGERIAN CASE
Although Nigeria is the most populous country and the largest economy on the African continent, the Nigerian economy has underperformed over the years.
Nigeria was tagged the poverty capital of the world in 2017 according to the World Poverty Clock, a Global Provider of data on poverty and related metrices. The situation has remained unchanged as revealed in the 2021 updated data from World Poverty Clock. However, in this year 2022, India has taken over that tag.
Nigeria now has over 70 million people currently living in extreme poverty, representing 33% of the country’s population. This is despite the abundance of natural and human capital in the country, including vast hydrocarbons wealth (about 37.1 billion barrels of proven oil reserves in 2015, which at current production rates, gives the country another 43 years’ worth of oil revenues; 5.1trillion cubic metres of natural gas in 2015, accounting for a whopping 2.7% of total global reserves (Oxford Business Group, 2022)).
Apart from oil and gas, Nigeria is home to significant deposits of coal, iron ore, lead, limestone, tin and zinc, and rich land and water resources for agricultural purposes. Indeed, the agricultural industry remains a mainstay of the economy, accounting for 23.9% of GDP and upwards of 70% of this country’s workforce. Approximately 83.7% of Nigeria’s land area is agricultural, although only 40% is arable. Substantial water resources also assist the agricultural sector. This country has 230bn cubic metres of total renewable water resources. This should help expand productivity through irrigation. However, as of 2012, only 0.3% (or 2930 sq km) of Nigeria’s total land area was irrigated.
Despite the abundant human and natural resources, Nigeria is bedeviled by lack of professional values and personal values.
In line with this, Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation (May 2022) issued a communiqué at the end of the 26th Joint meeting of the Board of Trustees and Advisory Council of the Foundation which aptly highlighted the ethical challenges facing the country. It noted with concern the deteriorating quality of the educational sector and incessant strikes by Universities, which has led many youth into anti-social vices such as internet fraud, robbery, banditry, among others that may compromise their future.
A cursory review of the social vices in Nigeria will reveal serious issues concerning values and ethics such as dishonesty (reflecting as corruption), injustice (reflecting in the mob attacks, slow judicial processes), relatively low levels of diligence in the average population (seen in growth of online frauds and resort to online frauds by youths in teeming numbers). These are few of the social ills reflecting a lack of professional and personal value system that has plagued the country.
For Nigeria to be set on a firm path to sustainable growth, the real journey starts with each individual person and professionals like you and me. Each of us must expouse laudable goals for ourselves, our families, and companies, thus forming a bedrock of society with enviable values that will translate into sustainable growth for companies and ultimately, a solid macroeconomy like those of the advanced countries. Let your journey in this regard start effectively today.
We have now considered the role of good values of a governance professional for businesses in Nigeria. We will now turn attention to ethics.
ETHICS
While values are personal, ethics are usually in the professional context. So professional values are intertwined with ethics. Ethics can be said to be professional business standards that promote good conduct.
The Nigerian Code of Corporate Governance 2018 (NCCG) requires the establishment of a Code of Professional Business Conduct and Ethics (COBE). Adapting from the NCCG, you should assume the following ethical conduct as applicable to you always as Governance Professionals:
Acting honestly, in good faith and in the best interests of your Company in accordance with legal requirements and agreed ethical standards
If you are a director, you owe a fiduciary duty to your Company
As Governance Professionals you should always act with a duty of care, skill, diligence and loyalty in fulfilling the functions of your offices and exercising the powers attached to those offices
You should undertake diligent analysis of all proposals placed before the Board and act with the level of skill expected from you as a Governance Professional;
Never make improper or prejudicial use of privileged information and you should not disclose non-public information except where disclosure is authorized or legally mandated;
You should not take advantage of their position for personal gain or to compete with the Company.
As Governance Professionals, desist from engaging in conduct likely to discredit your Company, and you should always deal fairly with all employees with the Company’s customers, suppliers and competitors.
Always encourage the reporting of unlawful or unethical behaviours and actively promote ethical behaviours and the protection of those who report violations in good faith; and
Consider it your obligation to comply with the principles of the Code of Business Conduct and Ethics of your Company and professional institute at all times.
BENEFITS OF GOOD ETHICS FOR BUSINESSES AND NATION BUILDING
By adhering to these ethical values, Governance Professionals demonstrate a commitment to good governance practices and increase their levels of transparency, trust and integrity. They thus assist and support their Company’s Board of Directors to create an environment for sustainable business operations.
As companies create environments for sustainable operations, these micro-economies aggregate to form and create a strong macroeconomic environment for the Nigerian economy.
As Governance Professionals, you should seek to promote public awareness of essential corporate values and ethical practices that will enhance the integrity of your immediate business environment and the wider Nigerian economy. In other words, you should be good governance ambassadors for the Institute and wherever you find yourself, whether at home in Nigeria or abroad.
By living and practicing laudable and best practice ethical values, Governance Professionals will rebuild public trust and confidence in the Nigerian economy, thus facilitating increased trade and investment.
Companies with Governance Professional in their Boards of Directors and Management will therefore have higher chances of having effective Boards and competent Management that act with integrity in their engagements with Shareholders and Other Stakeholders. In such well managed organizations, the interests of the Board and Management are aligned with those of the Shareholders and Other Stakeholders. Such companies are better placed to achieve their business goals and contribute positively to society.
At this point, a lookback into history to see how it all started in Nigeria will enable you, my audience, fully appreciate the importance of business ethics of Governance Professionals in Nigerian business terrain.
BACKGROUND TO ETHICAL BUSINESS CONSIDERATIONS IN NIGERIA
The subject of values and business ethics has been featuring prominently in Nigeria with the 2003 Atedo Peterside Committee on corporate governance, where Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) attempted to promote improved practices in the capital market in Nigeria in line with global developments. This was followed by other regulatory bodies issuing varying corporate governance codes thereby compounding a problem that solutions were being sought for.
A major milestone in this journey was the Financial Reporting Council Act No. 6 of 2011, which established the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria. One of the achievements of the Council to date is the creation of a unified code of corporate governance in the Country, by developing and publishing the Nigerian Code of Corporate Governance (NCCG) 2018. The issues of ethical culture forms significant portions of the Code. Specifically, Principle 24 deals with Business Conduct and Ethics whilst Principle 25 deals with Ethical Culture
However, the desired corporate behavioural patterns which the Code of Corporate Governance and its recommended ethical values propagate are not effectively achieved by pieces of legislation but by a conscious and deliberate inculcation of these corporate behaviours in people and organisation.
BENEFITS OF STRONG ETHICAL VALUES DURING CRISIS
During the past two decades, the world has witnessed 2 major catastrophes that have shaped how corporations are governed. These 2 global catastrophes are:
The Global Financial Crisis of 2008-2009
The Covid 19 Pandemic of 2020 till date.
Companies that have adequately withstood these crises are those with good corporate governance and ethical practices, whilst those with weak governance and ethical systems have collapsed or are wobbling.
What caused the global financial crisis? The main causes have been attributed to the following:
Excessive risk taking by companies during periods of economic boom: When economic downturn came around, it exposed how weak the risk management of these companies had been when they were lending during the boom periods.
Excessive borrowing by banks and investors: These were not able to repay their loans when economic downturn began surfacing in 2007.
Pervasive unethical practices leading to widespread fraud: Regulation on lending to borrowers with lower credit standing was lax and companies misrepresented borrowers’ information to enable them to lend to customers who were even very uncreditworthy.
The question then is, what could have prevented these 3 causative factors above? Good ethical values enshrined in best practice Corporate Governance.
The global financial crisis, the Covid 19 Pandemic, and other shocks to the macro economy have highlighted the need for good corporate governance and ethical practices in corporations, making it a high priority for companies and governments around the world.
The key ethical issues that have been identified in all of this include:
Poorly designed executive compensation packages that lead to excessive risk taking: Good corporate governance and ethical values, such as those expounded by the Nigerian Code of Corporate Governance 2018, now recognize the need to link remuneration of executive directors to performance and avoid excessive risk taking by having robust risk management, internal audit, and internal control systems.
The relationship between ethics, sustainability, and long-term strategy has also been prioritized: Practices that encourages long term gains rather than short term profit maximization (sustainability) are now globally recognized as a key part of corporate governance and ethical considerations. Global best practice in corporate governance now emphasizes adequate stakeholder participation in governance. For example, Principle 24 of NCCG 2018 deals with Business Ethics and Conduct, Principle 25 deals with Ethical Culture, whilst Principle 22 deals with Stakeholder Engagement and Principle 23 deals with Protection of Shareholder Rights; and Principle 26 deals with Sustainability.
Whilst the Covid 19 pandemic was caused by totally different issues relating to human biological factors, its impact pervades the socio-cultural, economic and financial facets of the nation and globe. It is widely acknowledged that companies with good corporate governance and ethical values have withstood the effects of the Covid 19 crisis adequately because of good ethical practices and strong values in place, leadership by an effective board of directors, and adequate support of shareholders and other stakeholders.
ENTRENCHING THE VALUES AND ETHICS OF A GOVERNANCE PROFESSIONAL IN THE NIGERIAN BUSINESS TERRAIN
Indeed, the importance of values and ethics in productivity and national development is now globally recognized and is the attention of national and global discourse. As already discussed above, recent studies and corporate experiences have shown that good corporate governance and ethical practices are major factors contributing to improved corporate results, growth and development.
Growth and development in companies in turn aggregate to contribute significantly to a better gross national product (GDP) performance for the country, more employment opportunities, and attraction of foreign investments.
Foreign investments in corporations and industries in the economy in turn supports a stable foreign currency exchange regime and production of goods and services, which in turn helps keep the inflation at an acceptable level in the country.
Thus, the impact of Governance Professionals in their companies of all sizes are important to growth and development of the nation.
Professionals and corporations are the main creators of wealth, employment, and production of goods and services within an economy. Even the success of fiscal and monetary policies is usually underpinned and dependent on compliance by companies and other corporations in both the public and private sectors (legal entities), to extant laws, standards, codes, regulations, rules, circulars etc.
Good ethical values ensures companies adheres to legal requirements and stakeholder expectations, including that of government. Therefore, policies of government tend to work better where companies practice good corporate governance. Government becomes more effective and efficient as corporations serve as ready tools to achieve results. This results in efficient utilization of resources and access to investments and capital resources.
Good values and ethics practiced by Governance Professionals thus serves as a bedrock of national growth, development and productivity.
SUMMARY
Summarily, strong ethical values help achieve national growth and development by means of 10 broad areas as follows:
Education, training and development: This includes training and development, Continuing Professional Education, regular and comprehensive performance appraisals, membership of professional bodies, meritorious employment processes and national policies that encourage training on values and ethics.
Reducing corruption.
Promoting accountability and increasing the levels of trust, transparency and integrity.
Enhancing good reputation of companies in both the public and private sector and thus the macro-economy in the long term.
Ensuring the Governance Professionals, including members of the Board of Directors and Senior Management act in the best interest of the Company at all times.
Minimizing conflicts of interest.
Producing an environment that prioritizes sustainable results.
Rebuild public trust and confidence in the Nigerian economy.
Facilitating trade and investment.
Harmonizing business vision and mission with best practices in corporate governance and ethical values, which in turn drives tactical and operational best practices within organizations.