My plans to promote corporate governance excellence in Nigeria – Borodo

c, newly elected President, Chartered Institute of Directors (IoD) Nigeria, says his strategic agenda is aimed at promoting corporate governance excellence in various sectors of the Nigerian economy.

Borodo, at a nedia parley on Friday in Lagos, said his strategy hinged on a three point agenda (3Rs), would also advocate policies and practices that foster growth and innovation.

The president whose investiture comes up on Sept. 14 in Lagos, said the agenda was necessary in view of the emerging dynamics of IoD Nigeria operations.

“Recently, the institute celebrated 40 years of its existence, and this has been made possible by the meritorious services of past leaders.

“I have just been saddled with the responsibility to continue with the excellent achievements of these eminent pacesetters and build on their solid foundation.

“My strategic agenda is to continue to promote excellence in corporate governance and advocate for policies and practices that foster growth and innovation.

“This would be built on my “Three-Point Agenda” which I tag, “Review, Reform and Reinvigoration”.

“In this new administration, our focus will be on the review of the existing corporate strategy, reform of our membership and branch development status and reinvigoration of our operations to better serve our valued members,” he said.

The IoD president disclosed that plans were underway to establish more mutually beneficial partnerships and widen the institute’s network of collaboration with the public sectors.

This, he explained, was with the view to entrenching sound corporate governance practices that will position the Nigerian economy on the path of growth.

Borodo said the synergy between corporate Nigeria and the government could produce better results in the area of corporate governance.

According to him, it is by achieving this that investor confidence can be encouraged, which in turn, will bring about the much-desired Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to the economy.

“For almost a decade, IoD Nigeria has realised the need to involve the public sector in the crusade for good corporate governance.

“We have worked with the various necessary organs and offices of government to hold capacity development programmes that would enhance the knowledge of public sector officials about corporate governance.

“This has resulted in a large number of directors and executives of ministries, departments and agencies of government joining the Institute.

“Not only are we doing it at the national level, but we are also working with the sub-nationals and bringing them into the Institute.

“Let me assure you that IoD Nigeria is fully ready to take the lead and drive this initiative,” he said.

Borodo also emphasised the need for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) to factor succession planning into their operations.

He stated that all organisations, the size notwithstanding, should have a feasible strategic succession plan in place to ensure business sustainability.

He noted that many large multinationals in operations, today, which started as MSMEs have now grown to become larger cooperations employing thousands of nationalities across the globe.

“To be able to achieve this succession planning, organisations must imbibe the culture of mentoring the next generation of leaders.

“This is already being practiced in IoD Nigeria through the Young Directors Forum, a platform for nurturing the leadership and directorship skills of young professionals,” he said.

The IoD president also pushed for diversity and inclusiveness on boards of organisations and in the political space as a critical priority.

Noting that diversity could be in terms of age, gender, among other dynamics, Borodo said that a lot could still be done to address the gaps its absence had created.

“Our institute is quite conscious of this need and that is why we have tried to show examples by creating platforms that will enhance diversity and inclusiveness.

“For example, our Young Directors Forum is meant to provide the necessary tutelage and mentorship to young and aspiring directors and c-suite executives and prepare them for bigger responsibilities.

“In addition, our Women Directors Development Committee has worked assiduously in the past years to cater to the peculiar needs of female directors through gender-specific programmes, mentoring programmes, coaching etc., specially targeted at female members of the institute.

“These have contributed immensely to the development of our women directors and given them more confidence to perform their roles as directors.

“To further reinforce past efforts, the institute under my leadership, will initiate educational campaigns, seminars, and workshops to highlight the advantages of diverse boards, which include, better decision-making, innovation, and better representation of stakeholder perspectives.

“Also, we will set clear diversity goals and establish clear and measurable diversity goals for organisations and political entities, urging them to actively pursue balanced representation of women and youth on their boards,” he said.