Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) has charged business start-ups, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to adopt sound corporate governance to drive succession and longevity.
The Agency’s Director-General, Dr Dikko Radda, gave the charge at the Institute of Directors (IoD) 2021 Annual Directors Conference held physically and virtually on Wednesday in Lagos.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the two-day event has the theme: “Creating the Future: Deepening the Corporate Governance Practice through Multi-Sectoral and Multi-Generational Collaborations”.
Radda, represented by Director, Enterprises Development and Promotion, SMEDAN, Mr Monday Ewans said there were numerous benefits in inculcating sound corporate governance by start-ups.
He said robust corporate governance engendered improved reputation and perception in the marketplace.
He said it would also attract quality workforce, investors, funding, create favourable relations with regulators and increase profit margin.
The D-G said that its absence, however, could lead to poor access to funding, non-functional work space, inadequate cash flow, poor business innovation, unqualified staffing and unsatisfied customers among others.
“Corporate governance encompasses internal and external factors that affect businesses. Good principles provide good stools for MSMEs to sustain themselves.
“Some fundamental principles include equal treatment of shareholders, transparency, accountability, fairness, upholding legal obligations to shareholders and stakeholders to guide against risk and death of business.
“Good corporate governance helps enterprises to grow faster and sustainable for the development of the nation,” he said.
Radda expressed the agency’s willingness to partner with IoD Nigeria and other stakeholders to ease the affairs of MSMEs in order to create jobs, alleviate poverty and improve standards of living of Nigerians.
Dr Steve Ogidan, the Chairman, Successory Nigeria Ltd., said sound corporate governance principles would help MSMEs survival.
He charged start-ups to adopt proper book keeping mechanism, register companies, create advisory board, and build knowledge capacity.
“These, with access to funding from financial institutions and investors, would engender business sustainability from one generation to another,” Ogidan said (NAN)
