Yenagoa
The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) Engr. Simbi Wabote has stressed the willingness of the Board to continue to collaborate with its affiliate companies in the promotion of local content.
Wabote disclosed this in a keynote address at a two-day Corporate Governance workshop for affiliate companies organized by Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
The Director, Planning Research and Statistics, Mr. Patrick Obah who represented the Executive Secretary lauded all parties involved in driving the vision of the workshop aimed to stimulate the production sub-sector.
Obah expressed concern at the prevalence of failed companies in the country, adding that this prompted the Board to assemble its affiliate companies in order to analyze behavioral traits, demographic attitude and ability to incorporate feedback.
He urged participants at the end of workshop to be better equipped with the relevant skill to effectively manage the operation of their companies, noting that the collaboration will guarantee the overall good of the nation’s economy and promote indigenous goods and services to become global competitors as the collaboration with the private sector will enhance the nation’s GDP.
While welcoming participants, the Director, Legal Services, Barr. Mohammed Umar hinted that workshop was conceived by the Board to create a window of discussions and feedback between the Board’s top management and affiliate companies where the Board has invested or partnered, with a view to understanding the Board’s expectations from their projects.
Umar noted that the two-day Corporate Governance workshop was intended for affiliate companies to benefit from its equity investments or partnership in projects development.
Also speaking, the Director, Finance and Personnel Management, NCDMB, Mr. Isaac Yalah indicated that the training was also geared to catalyze businesses in Nigeria by providing a mechanism that would grow businesses in line with the Board’s 10-year strategic roadmap.Â
“This led the Board to develop an investment policy and create the Commercial Ventures Department that will intervene in all of the Board’s commercial and investment related activities”, he said.
He stated that as part of the initiative, a two-fold approach of looking into specialized projects and how to intervene by lending support to participants was put in place. He reiterated that this was in line with the key objectives of the 10-year strategic roadmap to create 300,000 jobs and ensure Nigerian Content grows to about 70 percent by 2027. He disclosed that the training is to meet that objective and create sustainability for the companies, develop a matrix for effective peer review, and for collaboration.
In his remarks at the end of the two-day workshop, the Senior Technical Assistant to the Executive Secretary and General Manager, Strategy and Transformation Projects, Mr. Abayomi Bamidele emphasized that the training was intended to build capacity on corporate governance within the country as part of the Board’s mandate is to develop in-country capacity, apart from being a regulator as embedded in Section 70 of the NOGICD Act (2010).
Mr. Bamidele indicated that affiliate companies at the end of the workshop are expected to submit their reports regularly, hold quarterly meetings, follow the financial draw-down plan as contained in the Shareholders’ Agreement, and draw up a succession plan framework to forestall companies revolving round individuals which is the bane of corporate organizations in Nigeria.
In a vote of thanks, the Director, Legal Services NCDMB recommended that a Code of Conduct Governance be developed for the Board’s affiliate companies and business partners to cover the way and manner they run the business and also hold them accountable in case of infractions.Â
He also added that Nigerian Content philosophy should be embedded in the Code of Conduct Governance of the affiliate companies.
By Kenechukwu Obiajuru,
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