The Executive Vice Chairman, EVC, of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta has harped on the importance of implementing a Code of Corporate Governance for the ICT and Telecoms sector in the country.
He said this at the Commission’s Corporate Governance Forum on the Review of the Industry Code held at Sheraton Hotel, Lagos on Tuesday, which was formally declared open by Minister of Communications, Barr. Adebayo Shittu.
Umar Danbatta said the Telecommunications sector has attracted Foreign Direct Investments, FDI, in excess of $38 Billion, adding that its value chain has led to the creation of a significant number of jobs opportunities for the Nigerian Youth.
He pointed out that in the first quarter of 2016, the telecoms sector contributed in progressive and real terms of about 8.83% to the Country’s Gross Domestic Product, GDP, which represents an increase of 0.5% from the last quarter of 2015.
Recall that the Commission in 2012 set up a multi-stakeholder Corporate Governance Working Group, CGWG, with membership drawn from across the Nigerian telecoms industry, the Commission and Corporate Governance practitioners, with a mandate of determining the industry’s corporate governance needs and the best approach to be adopted in addressing them.
The CGWG developed the Code of Corporate Governance for the telecoms industry, which was published in 2014.
The Code consists 12 principles and was developed to protect the interest of investors and stakeholders in the industry, as well promote time-valued principles of accountability, responsibility, transparency, integrity and ethical conduct.
While compliance with the provisions of the industry Code was initially made voluntary for
a period of 1 year, which has since elapsed, the Commission is gradually moving towards a regime of stricter compliance.
To this end, the Commission recently carried out an industry study to assess the level of compliance with the Code.
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