NCC, FRC to Enforce Corporate Governance Compliance in Telecom Sector

Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRC) have agreed to enforce compliance by players in the Nigerian telecommunication sector to the national and sectoral corporate codes of governance in the country.

Speaking during a courtesy visit by the management and board of FRC to the commission in Abuja, Mr. Sunday Dare, executive commissioner, Stakeholder Management, NCC, who received the FRC team on behalf Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, executive vice chairman of the commission, said the commission was ready to provide full support and collaboration by working together to entrench the best corporate governance practices in all sectors of the Nigerian economy.

Mr. Dare said the NCC believed that sound corporate governance was a sine qua non for meaningful growth and economic development, particularly for an industry as dynamic and complicated as telecom, stressing that this was why the NCC issued the Code of Corporate Governance for the telecom industry in 2014 and made it mandatory for its larger licenses in 2016.

He noted that the FRC also launched the Nigerian Code of Corporate Governance in 2018 to achieve broadly the same objectives as the NCC Code on an economy-wide basis. The FRC Code, however, takes effect from January 2020.

Dare explained that while the two codes had the same primary objective of enhancing corporate performance through adherence to best practice principles, it was natural that there would be areas of divergence, which he said the commission and FRC could work harmoniously together to address for the overall benefit of the country.

“It is our understanding that the National Code will exist simultaneously with sectoral codes such as the NCC Code, which will now be described as ‘Guidelines’; where conflicts exist between the two codes, the stricter provisions will apply; and the National Code for FRC gives flexibility for sector regulators such as the NCC to adapt Governance Principles to suit the peculiar needs of the sector,” he said.

Dare further explained that regulatory certainty and predictability were very critical for the telecom industry and therefore required continuous and harmonious engagements between the two organisations to address grey areas.

He also informed the FRC delegation that since the compliance with the NCC Code became mandatory; the level of corporate governance compliance among affected telecom licensees had also increased.

In his comments, Mr. Daniel Asapokhai, FRC executive secretary and chief executive officer, who led his delegation to the commission, commended the NCC for its sectoral code initiative, stressing that increased engagement of the businesses and licensees affected by such co