Economy
THE Institute of Directors (IoD) has charged its new members to promote ethical and responsible leadership to achieve long-term and sustainable goals that would be beneficial to all stakeholders and the nation at large.
Dr Ije Jidenma, President, IoD, gave the charge in a report on Thursday from the induction ceremony in Lagos.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that among the inductees are Mrs Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget and Planning, Mr Clem Agba, Minister of State, Finance, Budget and Planning and Dr Folashade Yemi-Esan, Head of Civil Service.
Jidenma said the charge was pertinent to spur the inductees to action as their admission into the institute was a call to service within and outside their organisation.
This, she said, was particularly in view of the fact that the country was today faced with myriad of challenges.
“Some of these challenges are not unique to Nigeria such as the ravaging global COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, but show the world is characterised by its volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.
“But let the truth be told, a significant part of the challenges we face today are not globally-driven but self-induced.
“Problems such as crude oil theft, embedded corruption in our oil subsidy regime, the displacement of farmers from their lands and areas of domicile are all self-induced.
“We as an Institute are thus challenged to be part of the solution,” she said.
The IoD president stated that the institute prided itself as the national champion and advocate for good corporate governance in the public and private sectors of the economy, and even in the non-governmental not-for profit sector.
This, she said, reflected in its members who were dedicated and well positioned to always demonstrate an uncommon ability to direct and ensure that their organisations adhered to global corporate governance best practices and also paid attention to sustainability requirements.
“I, therefore, heartily welcome the new members waiting to be inducted into an Institute of Directors that is a great place of honour, prestige and reputation in the Nigerian business environment.
“The advocacy role of the Institute is evident in the way we develop our programmes to take into consideration the external environment and the wider society in which they operate.
“We help to ensure that favourable and more importantly effective policies are fashioned out by those responsible to ensure that businesses thrive,” she said.
Jidenma reiterated the IoD’s commitment to continually raise the bar of sound corporate governance practice and good business ethics in the course of discharging roles and responsibilities as directors and business leaders.
She added that the institute in collaboration with PriceWaterhouseCoopers had put in place a functional whistleblowing policy.
“We are doing all these because of our firm belief that competence is important, as we qualitatively engage with our faculty in the delivery of director development programmes locally and internationally that match any in the world.
“We are aware that true leadership requires much more than competence or successful execution of short -term goals,” she said.
In his address titled: “Winning Strategies for Navigating Current Inflationary Trends,” Dr Nosike Agokei, Economist and Corporate Governance Professional, noted that inflation was a harsh reality for businesses in 2022 seeing that prices had skyrocketed to new levels.
Agokei said one way for companies to offset losses and maintain gross margins was by thoughtfully raising prices while maintaining customer relationships, sales, and profit margins.
He advised businesses to cut costs by streamlining expenses, assessing supply chain, cut costs, increase efficiencies, reprioritise customer loyalty incentives, cut energy costs and explore new markets.
“We can control the way we do business by working and analysing costs, identifying elements that drive inflation and addressing them.
“Companies must adopt business models that can absorb keys drivers of inflation such as switch to renewable energy, remote work model, among others.
“The minds of employees must be tailored to understand the impact and consequences of inflation,” he said. (NAN)
A.I
Tags: Dr Folashade Yemi-Esan Dr Ije Jidenma Dr Nosike Agokei Institute of Directors Mrs Zainab Ahmed
