IoD, FRC partner to train SMEs on corporate governance

Plans are underway by the Institute of Directors (IoD) Nigeria, in partnership with the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) to train Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) on corporate governance, to assist them maintain high standards of business ethics and integrity in their operations.

The agreement was sealed over the weekend when the governing council of IoD Nigeria led by its President and Chairman of Council, Ahmed Rufai Mohammed, paid a courtesy visit to the Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer of FRC, Daniel Asapokhai and his team in Lagos.

They said that with the agreement, it will assist the SME owners to move from the informal ways of doing business to formal ways.
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He noted that while the surge of SMEs in the country was an economic booster, it would pose a big challenge to the economy in the long run if the owners failed to embrace the best practices of doing business in their operations.

The IoD boss who considered SMEs as buffer to the economy, stressed that young directors who control small businesses should be made to imbibe the culture of best practices.

Asapokhai said there was an urgent need to push the SME operators to the next level of doing and organising their businesses better.

He also called for a bouquet of courses to take to the SMEs in the hinterland, adding that corporate governance should not only be elitist but should be inclusive.

According to him, if indeed 80% of the private sector economy is controlled by the SMEs, then corporate governance must be taken to their level.

Both parties agreed to collaborate and come up with a Memorandum of Understanding between the two organisations that will make them experiment with the IoD Nigeria’s Company Direction Courses (CDC) with some case studies of successful entrepreneurship.

The intension would be to see how the messages would be localised and delivered to small companies and less educated directors by adjusting the price, curriculum, structure, content, and make the SME operators see the need to participate in the training.
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