Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Is it possible to do ethical business in Nigeria?

I spent part of the summer of 2014 in Nigeria (Abuja and Port Harcourt) and conducted a lot of business and all the parties that I dealt with were ethical and people of great integrity. I am sure that other business visitors to Nigeria have encountered dishonest and unethical practitioners--I did not. This, of course, was not my first business trip to Nigeria. Perhaps, I am just lucky. Nigeria has the potential to emerge as the continent's leader in wealth creation and development; it just needs to arm itself with the appropriate incentive structures.

On Fri, Sep 26, 2014 at 9:52 AM, 'kayode Ketefe' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Is it possible to do ethical business in Nigeria?


KAYODE KETEFE

Is it possible to do ethical business in Nigeria? This was among numerous, albeit, interrelated questions, that claimed the attention of diverse stakeholders in the governance sector at the recently concluded 38th Annual conference of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria (ICSAN) which held last Tuesday and Wednesday in Lagos. It was a forum in which this writer, as one of the participants, was treated to numerous thought-provoking and critically- engaging contemporary issues on commerce, industry and investment in Nigeria amidst the framework of corporate governance.
The opening poser "is it possible to do ethical business in Nigeria" understandably became relevant and apt against the backdrop of our proverbial infrastructural deficit, high cost of doing business and rampaging corruption. It was heart-warming that while all the speakers and discussants readily acknowledged the enormity of challenges of doing ethical business in this country, all of them not only agreed that ethical business is possible, but also offered pragmatic perspectives on how it could be done.
The well-attended two-day conference had the theme "Nigeria of tomorrow: the challenge of growth, security and governance. The Chairman of the occasion was no other person than the immediate past President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and a fellow of ICSAN, Alhaji Kabir Alkali Mohammed, while the keynote address speaker was the Chief Executive Officer, MTN Nigeria Communications Limited, Mr. Michael Ikpoki. Many past presidents of the institute and of course, the Registrar, Mr. Dele Togunde, as well as the presidents/representatives of prominent professional associations and the president of the Association of Professional Bodies in Nigeria (APBN) Bala Bawa Ka'Oje were also in attendance.
The President of the ICSAN, Dr. Suleyman Ndanusa, set the appropriate tone for the conference, when he presented an overarching view of the problem facing Nigeria and enjoined all sundry to work hard in rechanneling the nation towards path of redemption. He also sensitised the Nigerian government to diverse responsibilities devolved on it against the broadside of our numerous socio-economic problems.  Dr. Ndanusa said, "If we must achieve economic growth as a country and have the same cascade down to other levels, then government must put in place policies that would help achieve inclusive growth and poverty reduction. It is obvious that the current security crisis in the country has a lot of economic undertone. The level of youth unemployment and poverty make our teaming youths ready tools for all forms of criminality and insurgency."
In his well-received presentation, the MTN CEO, Ikpoki, provided diverse perspectives on business management in Nigeria, using his organisation as a case study. He said, inter alia, "I believe you will agree with me that more often than not, the statistics and conditions associated with Nigeria and indeed Africa are presented as negative and unfavorable. Not so however, the recent rebasing of Nigeria's GDP from $269.5 billion to $509.9 billion (or N80.2 trillion), making us the 26th largest economy in the world and the largest economy in Africa.
"It is instructive to note that Nigeria's growth amongst other factors is linked to improvements in economic governance and management."
Ikpoki concluded that "It is possible to do ethical business in Nigeria, in spite of all our challenges"
Presenting a paper entitled "Governance: Cost of doing business in Nigeria", the Acting Director-General, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Mr. Rasheed Adegbenro, painted a very gory picture of operating business in Nigeria, alluding to environmental, administrative, fiscal and economic challenges, including lack of infrastructure, security challenge and cost of finance facing entrepreneurs and resulting in sheer financial exorbitance of entrepreneurial initiatives. This seemingly scholastic paper was aptly loaded with comparative statistics from other nations. However, Mr. Adegbenro did not stopped at highlighting the problems alone, he also provided well-thought out solutions which included, setting realistic economic objectives, create a Nigerian formula for success, diversifying the economy, building competitive industries and infrastructure, making adequate and efficient use of human resources and moving from resource-based to
 knowledge-based industry.
An interesting dimension was added to already rich discourse with the presentation of paper entitled "Shareholder activism: Any added value to governance?" by the National Coordinator of the Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria (ISAN), Sir Sunny Nwosu, who thrilled the audience with facts, figures and enlightening anecdotes on shareholders relations dynamics in Nigeria. Nwosu answered the poser raised in topic of his discourse in the affirmative, citing, among other things, governance benefits his association had procured in the course of its existence. These benefits included Protection of minority shareholders' interests, education of minority shareholders, aggregation of shareholders views, promotion of positive growth of the capital market and enhancement of the practice of corporate governance. There is no doubt that the conference, which I thoroughly enjoyed, offered a laudable forum for authentic and qualitative advancement of
 governance issues in corporate Nigeria.

Ketefe is a member of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria (ICSAN)








































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JOHN MUKUM MBAKU, ESQ.
J.D. (Law), Ph.D. (Economics)
Graduate Certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law
Nonresident Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution
Attorney & Counselor at Law (Licensed in Utah)
Brady Presidential Distinguished Professor of Economics & Willard L. Eccles Professor of Economics and John S. Hinckley Fellow
Department of Economics
Weber State University
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