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SEC to institute corporate governance scorecard for quoted companies

By BusinessNews Staff on February 12, 2015

The acting Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mr. Mounir Gwarzo on Tuesday said a corporate governance scorecard would soon be launched to strengthen the performance of companies operating in the nation’s capital market.

He said among other things, the commission believes there will be better returns and service delivery if adherence to the tenets of corporate governance is taken seriously by publicly quoted companies.

Speaking when he received members of the Institute of Directors Centre for Corporate Governance in Abuja, Gwarzo said the proposed launch of the scorecard which would probably be the first by an institution in the financial system in the country, underscored the importance the Commission attaches to corporate governance.

He added that SEC’s immediate ambition would be to see that every operator in the capital market complies with corporate governance in no distant time.
Gwarzo said the commission was currently consulting on the scorecard “to ensure that before we launch the Corporate Governance Scorecard in the next couple of weeks, we would have consulted widely with the relevant bodies.”

He said:”Corporate governance is very close to our heart and we believe that collaboration with you will further propagate the advocacy in terms of its importance. I can assure you that we are ready to collaborate with you.”

According to him, “if there was any institution in the capital market that should be the champion of corporate governance, it should be the SEC because of our important role as regulator in the Nigerian capital market.”

“He also recognised the wide coverage that the SEC’s has both within the SROs, the Trade Groups, quoted companies and the operators.”

He, however, noted that firms would not be able to ascertain the level of their compliance with the code when they do not have a compliance officer.

Specifically, he recalled the intervention by the Commission in Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) had resulted into better management of the bank.

He added: “The issue then was purely a corporate governance affair and the bank has since realised the critical role corporate plays in an institution.”

The SEC acting boss observed that Commission currently has a department specifically overseeing corporate governance for quoted companies and other institutions.

He assured the IoD board members that the Commission was willing to give all the support they required as the partnership would also be of immense benefit to SEC given its role in the Nigerian capital market.

“We have a role to play in the Nigerian capital market to ensure that companies do well. By the time every company and institution imbibes the culture of good corporate governance, it will translate into better returns, better service delivery among others,” he said.

Speaking earlier, the second Vice President of the Institute, Alhaji Ahmed Rufai Mohammed, commended the commission in its efforts to rescue the Nigerian capital market in the aftermath of the challenges of the global financial crisis which also affected Nigeria’s economy.

Mohammed who is also Chairman of IoD’s Centre for Corporate Governance, said although a lot was being done by SEC working with the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) to sanitise the capital market, a lot still needed to be done especially in the area of corporate governance.

[ThisDay]

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