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Henry Uche
The Institute of Directors (IoD) Nigeria said it would work closely with the Federal Government and corporate organizations in 2020 for cross -fertilization of ideas. At the institute’s 2019 Directors annual Dinner & Awards in Lagos recently, its President and Chairman of Council, Chris Okunowo, said though 2019 has been challenging, IoD would make its visibility and impact in the affairs of the country clearer especially in the area of policy direction and business growth.
Okunowo stressed that IoD would promote the capacity of its member-directors to ensure that corporate governance practice is not compromised, adding that the success of corporate organisations in no small measure affects the economic growth and development of the country.
“We have commenced the process of positive engagement with the public sector. Our mindset is to lead a new vista of engagement with government, which will eschew confrontation but embrace diplomacy and partnership. Our plan is to ensure that in all our advocacy and intervention programme, we present ourselves as partners in progress; who have as much stake in the progress and prosperity of our country as any elected or career public servant.
“We shall work with Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as well corporate organisations to make sure that leadership and management of the country through various sectors are progressive.
“While we recognise and award Dangote Cement Plc, Nigerian Breweries in the manufacturing sector, we encourage captains of industries across board to strive to promote professionalism, especially in human capital development. IoD is interested in the affairs of Nigeria and we remain optimistic that 2019 shall be impactful” he said.
In his part, the Group Executive Chairman, BUA Group, Abdul Samad, speaking at the occasion charged the Federal Government to fix infrastructure problems bedevilling the country as the panacea to economic backwardness. Samad maintained that Nigeria has the largest business opportunities in Africa given its abundant human, material and natural resources but the cankerwarm eating deep into the fabrics of Nigeria remains bad leadership. “If public and private sector leaders can harness the potential of our human capital resources and fix structural problems, people would not suffer as it is today, and unfortunately, the structural and infrastructural problems that seems unfixable is become so shameful, the worst is the cost of doing business, especially in the ports, which has skyrocketed.”
He argued that Nigeria’s unemployment rate would not have risen if the business environment were smooth enough for young people to maximize their potentialities, adding that crime rate would have been crushed if the youth had been engaged.
