Amid the controversies surrounding the recently released National Code of Corporate Governance (NCCG), members of the Organised Private Sector (OPS) comprising the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) as well as the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), have met the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRC), to brainstorm on harmonisation of the code.
The move was to address some aspects of rule to ensure it becomes an acceptable guiding rules for businesses in the country.
The OPS were on a courtesy visit to the Council’s corporate headquarters in Lagos to seek clarifications on certain areas of the code.
Speaking at the Council’s office, the Director General (DG) of NECA, Mr. Olusegun Oshinowo, who led the delegation, said the group was in support of the NCCG which is to ensure transparency, accountability and fairness to all stakeholders in the business sector of the economy but was in the Council’s office to seek clarifications on certain aspects of the code.
A statement said Oshinowo highlighted some of those areas to include among others, transitional period for the enforcement of the code, the number of non-executive directors to be appointed into companies’ board, constitution of Joint Audit by entities with at least N10b capital and appointment of consultants.
He urged the FRC to look into them with a view to addressing them in such a way that the inputs of the stakeholders would reflect in the code.
In his response, the Chief Executive Officer of the FRC, Mr. Jim Obazee, said the Council was working tirelessly with stakeholders to ensure the code yields the desired result of entrenching transparency and accountability in the way businesses are done through its emphasis on more disclosures in financial statements in order to build investors’ confidence in the nation’s business environment.
He noted that some of the giant strides the FRC made in the past which were hitherto criticised in the beginning were later commended for achieving the desired results.
Among them were “the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standard, IFRS, as benchmark for stating financial statements in the country; and the issuance of FRC registration numbers to those who sign entities’ accounts to give credence to the accounts.”
