Some stakeholders in the compliance industry in Nigeria have urged the incoming administration of the President-Elect, Bola Tinubu, to comply with governance best practices to drive development.

This was revealed at the May edition of the Association of Chief Compliance Officers of Banks in Nigeria’s stakeholders meeting which was hosted by a compliance consulting firm, DataPro Limited.

In his address at the event, the Founder/Chief Executive Officer of DataPro Limited, Abimbola Adeseyoju, said that the challenges facing the country were not insurmountable and could be solved if the country embraced best governance practices.

He said, “For the incoming administration, comply with governance best practices. The present challenges facing Nigeria are not insurmountable. In fact, some of the solutions to the problems of the country are already in the public domain. The major drawback to accelerated development and successes in governance in Nigeria is just the lack of compliance with governance best practices.

“Any government that wants to succeed in Nigeria must embrace compliance with governance best practices including leading by example (transparency), practising what you preach (accountability), avoiding conflict of interest (fairness), placing the interest of Nigeria or your state above your personal interest and having the political will to fight money laundering, terrorism, terrorist financing, proliferation financing and all other financial crimes.”

Adeseyejo added that if these steps were taken, “We will surely have a reversal of fortunes in our declining economic, political and social lives.”

Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies at the meeting called on the chief compliance officers of banks to improve their responses when they get requests from them.

A representative of law enforcement agencies accused banks’ CCO of lack of compliance, partial compliance or delayed compliance, which he claimed was affecting their work of combating financial fraud.

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