A United States of America (USA)-based international human rights capacity-building non-governmental organisation, Global Rights has collaborated with the European Union (EU) to train over 30 civil society organisations in Ibadan.
The two-day training with the theme, ‘Regulatory Compliance Training for Members of Community of Practice (COP) on Civic Space Strengthening in Oyo State’, was organised with support from the EU Delegation to Nigeria and the ECOWAS (EU Commission).
The Programme Manager of Global Rights, Edosa Oviawe, said the aim was to ensure that the CSOs have a better understanding and better knowledge of the regulatory framework that governs the non-profit sector in Nigeria.
According to Oviawe, the organisation has a regular platform which it calls the regional CSO conference in Nigeria on improving the regulatory environment, where it brings in all the stakeholders, the CSOs, the regulators and the lawmakers together to have a common understanding of the challenges bedevilling the non-profit sector in Nigeria.
He said: “Over time we see that a lot of social service organisations, NGOs at the national level and even at the state levels and community levels are doing great work across the states and the communities. But over time they are faced with this constant push-back with regards to non-compliance.
“They are always faced with the challenge of adequate knowledge on what and what is required of them in terms of regulatory compliance that governs NGOs in Nigeria. Most times, it is not because they don’t want to comply, it is majorly because of the knowledge gap.
“So, Global Rights has taken it upon itself with support from the European Union, a delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS and all its partners under the auspices of the COP on service-based strengthening to begin to build the capacity of these NGOs that are doing great work to fully understand the regulatory compliance required as a non-profit sector in Nigeria.”
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Prof. Adekunle Adedeji, who spoke on ‘Companies and Allied Matters’, stressed the need for a civil society organisation to appoint a compliance officer.
He said it was imperative to look at four frameworks of corporate affairs issues relating to the kinds of corporate organisations in focus, compliance requirements, yearly returns, and the issue of qualifications and disqualifications of directors and trustees.
National Steering Committee member, CoP on Civic Space Strengthening, Oluwatoyin Ogedengbe, said the training would strengthen the work that the CSOs do, especially when it comes to compliance with government regulations, even as she lamented the multiplicity of regulations in the civic space.
