Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
T
he Securities and Exchange Commission, has issued a Corporate Governance Guidelines and a template (revised Form 01) for reporting compliance with the Securities and SEC Corporate Governance Guideline, (SCGG) which becomes effective on January 01, 2021.
According to a statement from SEC yesterday, some provisions of the document which can be found at the SEC website www.sec.gov.ng, indicates that membership of the board shall not be less than five and to safeguard the independence of the board, not more than two members of the same family shall sit on the board of a public company at the same time
The guidelines also stipulate that in appointing a person to the board, shareholders should be provided with information on any real or potential conflict of interest, including whether a proposed appointee is an interlocking director, adding “the letters of appointment should cover the following: Synopsis of Director’s rights; Director evaluation programme used by the company, and any other contractual responsibilities.”
On sustainability, the guideline stated that “companies shall recognise corruption as a major threat to business and to national development and therefore as a sustainability issue for businesses in Nigeria.
“Companies, boards and individual directors must commit themselves to transparent dealings and to the establishment of a culture of integrity and zero tolerance to corruption and corrupt practices.