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NSE Partners CBI On Corporate Governance Rating for Companies(AllAfrica Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) The Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, had entered into partnership with Convention on Business Integrity (CBI) to develop Corporate Governance Rating System, CGRS, for companies quoted on the Exchange. In line with this, a breakfast meeting with senior executives from listed companies across various industry sectors in Nigeria, would be convened this week, to further discuss Corporate Governance as one of the critical fundamentals for ensuring a healthy investment environment and maximising investor returns for sustainable growth of the nation's capital market. The rating system, according to the NSE, is geared towards supporting effort of ingraining corporate integrity into the fabric of listed companies. According to Mr. Haruna Jalo-Waziri, Executive Director, Business Development, NSE, "The Exchange has been pursuing a programme that is really geared around sustainability as we want to encourage companies to do business in a sustainable manner. The partnership with the CBi is to create a corporate governance rating system and based on that system, a ranking will be created and an index introduced for companies that meet certain thresholds within that ranking." "The objectives are to raise overall corporate governance standards in the country, by providing companies with an incentive to develop global best practices. It will provide opportunities for companies to differentiate themselves in the market place," Jalo-Waziri added. Speaking on the initiative, the Executive Director of CBi, Mr Soji Apampa, mentioned that according to a recent IFC report, good corporate governance ultimately increases a company's access to capital. According to him, "The NSE and CBi plan to launch the CGRS in 2014 and as part of the process of implementing the initiative, we have invited companies to join us at a detailed briefing session on the CGRS. This session will provide information on the methodology, implementation, overall strategy and benefits of the system," revealed Apampa. It is important to note that the ratings and subsequent rankings will feed into two other important projects of the Exchange. Copyright Vanguard. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). |