Banking Briefs, BREAKING NEWS
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THE Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has issued a blueprint for Information Technology, IT, standards that will guide quality IT service delivery in the banking industry. The blueprint is part of the IT infrastructure transformation programme sponsored by the Bankers’ Committee in 2010.
A circular signed by John Ayoh, director, Information Technology Department, CBN, which was issued to banks on January 15, stated that “Pursuant to the need to identify and adopt global IT standards which would provide guidelines for and serve as reference points in ensuring the quality of IT service delivery in the Nigerian Banking Industry, through the IT infrastructure Transformation programme sponsored by the Bankers’ Committee in 2010, the blueprints for the IT standards and the governance framework has been defined and the circular has been released to the industry for adoption by all banks.”
The CBN said that a five-year implementation road map for the IT standards had been defined within which banks were expected to implement in accordance with the set timeliness and the defined priorities. It however, noted that the implementation would be in a continuum approach such that initial implementations would target maturity level 3, adding that the IT Standards Council, to be reconstituted after every two years, has been put in place to drive the adoption, implementation and compliance to the IT standards in the banking industry.
Ecobank’s Damage Control Measure
ECOBANK Transnational Incorporation, ETI, has moved to address the lapses following the damning verdict on its corporate governance by the capital market regulator of the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, by appointing an Europe-based body to assist in looking into its corporate structure. SEC’s investigation came after a Laurence Do Rego, the whistleblower, who is also a former group executive director of the bank, wrote a letter to the capital market regulator, alleging some misstatements in ETI’s 2012 financial statement.
A statement issued by Mwambu Wanendeya, group head of communications, ETI, said: “We are taking very seriously the press release issued by the Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission and changes have indeed already been made and initiatives under way to strengthen further ETI’s corporate governance. We continue nonetheless to be committed to work with the SEC and our other regulators in this important task. We are in contact with the SEC and hope to meet with them again very soon.
“In order to further improve its governance practices, ETI has indeed engaged the Global Board Centre of the renowned Swiss business school, the International Institute for Management Development, to undertake a review of its corporate governance, including the size and constitution of ETI’s board, its procedures for managing related party transactions as well as its committee structures and incentive policies. We expect that this report will be available by the end of this month and to serve along with the SEC report as a basis to make the improvements needed to strengthen our governance further.”
Wanendeya said that when the reports must have been received, the company will convene a meeting of its shareholders as implementation of some of the recommendations will require their approval.
Framework for Measuring Success
THE African Development Bank, AfDB, Board of Directors, has, approved the Institution’s Results Measurement Framework, RMF, for the period 2013-2016. The RMF which is a corporate management tool will help the institution meet its development goals. Simon Mizrahi, director of the bank’s Department for Quality and Results, said that the RMF is not an end in itself, rather, it’s a development tool for the bank to achieve its objectives.”
In a statement issued by the bank, the document is framed around 100 performance indicators organised into four interconnected levels, namely: development progress in Africa, AfDB’s contribution to development in Africa, the Bank’s operational performance and its organisational efficiency. The statement said the RMF brings together evidence of the AfDB’s strengths and weaknesses, so that it can take appropriate actions to better implement its 10-year strategy for 2013-2022 and as a management tool, the RMF will increase attention to five critical areas.
To better assess the Bank’s development impact, the statement said the RMF will put additional emphasis on intermediate outcomes rather than outputs and that it will also help to improve its AfDB understanding of development impact by articulating the linkages between the activities and their impact.
Compiled by Chinwe Okafor
— Jan. 27, 2014 @ 01:00 GMT
