The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) of Nigeria has requested for the urgency in getting a corporate governance code for the public sector in Nigeria.
The Executive Secretary/CEO, Financial Reporting Council (FRC) of Nigeria, Ambassador Shuaibu Adamu Ahmed, made the call at the 2023 Annual Corporate Governance Conference tagged “ESG and Corporate Governance: Aligning Strategies for Sustainable Success.
Ahmed spoke against the background of a statement made recently by the former Chairman, of Nestle Nigeria Plc, Chief Olusegun Osunkeye that there is a compelling need to introduce corporate governance to the Nigerian public sector for enhanced regulation of the structure, operations, and activities of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAS).
He appealed to the president of the Society for Corporate Governance and other stakeholders to ensure that at least the first draft of the code is released before the end of this year.
Ahmed noted that a lot of local initiatives have been put in place to support ESG disclosures locally here in Nigeria.
He explained that the Financial Reporting Council’s Nigerian Code of Corporate Governance NCCG 2018, principle 26, requires entities to pay adequate attention to sustainability issues to ensure successful long-term business performance.
Ahmed also noted that the FRC called on the federal government to commit Nigeria to early adopt the IFRS S1 and S2, and this led to the historic announcement of Nigeria in November 2022 at the Climate Change Conference COP 27 in Shamal Sheikh, Egypt, as the first country globally to declare its intention to early adopt the IFRS S1 and S2.
