The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), on Thursday in Lagos released the Code of Corporate Governance for the Nigerian Telecommunications Industry.
In the code, which was made available on the NCC’s website, the commission’s Executive Vice Chairman, Dr Eugene Juwah, said that the provisions of the code was based on international best practices.
Juwah said that the code sought to foster good corporate governance practices in the Nigerian telecommunications industry.
According to him, it is now common knowledge that enthronement of good corporate governance standards and practices in organisations encourage corporate success and business sustainability.
“The need to develop a sector specific Corporate Governance Code for the Nigerian Telecommunication Industry is necessary to address the peculiarities of the sector that are not typically dealt with under broadly-aimed codes.
“This is more so in view of the fact that the telecommunications sector, though, dominated by privately-held companies, is of strategic importance to the economy at a macro level.
“It also has considerable impact at the micro level.
“As the telecommunications industry’s regulator, NCC, in keeping with our core values proactively undertook industry-wide consultations with a view to determining the industry’s corporate governance needs,” he said.
Juwah said the commission conducted wide consultations to determine the best approach to adopt in addressing the issue of corporate governance in the sector.
Thus the Nigerian Telecommunications Sector Corporate Governance Working Group (CGWG), with membership drawn from across the Nigerian telecommunications sector.
“It includes, the NCC and Corporate Governance Consultants/ Experts that were inaugurated on Oct. 24, 2012 by our Executive Commissioner/Stakeholder Management, Mr Okechukwu Itanyi.
“The CGWG developed this Code of Corporate Governance for the Telecommunications Industry,” he said.
Juwah said that the code was a voluntary code of leading practices aimed at regulating corporate behaviour and practices of companies within the industry.
He said that it was hoped that the code would promote good corporate governance practices in the industry.
The NCC board agreed that the code should be reviewed on a yearly basis, to allow for continuous improvements where applicable.
