In today’s fast-shifting corporate landscape, the smartest companies are turning to compliance governance, enterprise risk management, and financial analysis as their compass and radar, helping them spot threats before they strike, seize opportunities as they emerge, and steer confidently toward sustainable success. Festus Akanbi explores why businesses must raise their game in this new era

In Nigeria’s financial and real sectors, compliance and enterprise risk management have moved from being back-office formalities to front-page determinants of corporate survival. This is because a critical look at recent corporate failures reveals a recurring thread: promising firms, particularly in the once‑buoyant fintech landscape and the real‑sector giants, have crumbled under the weight of compliance breaches and poorly managed risks.

Analysts pointed out that in the financial sector, lapses in anti-money‑laundering controls, Know‑Your‑Customer procedures, and reporting obligations have triggered regulatory sanctions and investor flight. In the real economy, from manufacturing to infrastructure, weak governance structures, cavalier risk‑taking, and disregard for statutory requirements have led to insolvencies, abandoned projects, and shattered public trust. Analysts argued that the narrative is no longer about isolated missteps; it is about a systemic underestimation of compliance and risk management as strategic levers, without which firms are only as stable as the next regulatory audit or market shock.

For a nation that has to deal with many business and economic challenges, the ability of companies, especially startups, to put their house in order is seen as a necessity; after all, it only makes sense to avoid complicating the already difficult operating environment in Nigeria.

Enterprise Risk Management

Analysts point out that although the challenges of lack of compliance and enterprise risk management cut across all sectors, there is no doubt that bigger firms are better placed to withstand initial shocks that the development can bring to the company, much more than the startups, hence the rising mortality of startups in Nigeria and other parts of Africa. They added that economic challenges in the form of highinflation, currency volatility, and forex shortages can be headaches for investors and startups. Others blame regulatory uncertainty in the form of changes and unclear actions that reflect a lack of understanding of the new nature of developments, which also tends to disrupt growth plans. There is also the problem of over-reliance on foreign venture capital without establishing sustainable revenue streams.

However, reports said bigger challenges came in the form of weak governance and unrealistic scaling. In the postmortem analyses of some of the collapsed firms, especially the startups, in Nigeria, analysts said there were incidences of rapid expansion without adequate structures, management capacity, relevant human capital, board oversight, or ethical leadership most certainly result in internal breakdowns.

Today, Nigeria, long regarded as Africa’s startup capital, is facing a sobering reality as a wave of company closures in 2024 and 2025 raises concerns over the sustainability of its tech ecosystem.

StartupGraveyard.africa, an online research firm, revealed that 53 startups across seven African countries shut down between 2013 and 2024, with nearly half based in Nigeria. The country remains home to an estimated 845 active startups as of mid-2025.

Recognising Compliance Red-flags

Responding to THISDAY inquiries, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, DataPro Limited, a credit rating agency, Mr. Abimbola Adeseyoju, explained that the difference between a thriving enterprise and a cautionary tale often lies in what employees know and how they use that knowledge.

Adeseyoju explained, “To ensure the sustainability, safety, security, stability, and soundness of an institution, the Management and Board members should understand how to deploy and utilise the tools and techniques of Compliance Governance, Enterprise Risk Management, and Financial Analysis.”

As a player in the credit rating sector, DataPro has, since 2009, been working with operators in the financial services and real sectors of the economy with its yearly training programme to equip the management and board level representatives of organisations to sharpen their skills in a way to solidify their respective organisations. According to him, this underscores why DataPro is organising its 2025 Kigali Master Class to expose management staff and board members to the dynamic application of these Three-Lines of Defence in Corporate Strategy and survival.

According to him, “It is no longer enough for compliance and enterprise risk management to live in policy manuals or sit in the heads of a few senior managers. Frontline bankers processing transactions, fintech developers writing code, and factory supervisors managing production lines all need to be fluent in the tools and techniques that keep their organisations on the right side of regulators, investors, and the public. This means training staff to recognise compliance red flags, apply risk‑assessment frameworks, and respond decisively to operational, financial, and reputational threats before they metastasise.

“Companies that invest in such hands-on capacity building are not just meeting regulatory requirements; they are weaving resilience into their corporate DNA, ensuring that growth is anchored in sustainability rather than in luck or short-term wins.”

Kigali Master Class

The programme, according to him, started as Dubai Master Class in 2009, and it allowed companies to train their management staff and board members on how to respond to the emerging challenges in business. He pointed out that the event has been held outside the shores of Nigeria to avail participants, most of whom are entitled to overseas training once a year, to benefit from the rigorous training. Apart from the opportunity of having foreign technocrats at the event, it will also give room for the concentration needed for such a rigorous exercise.

However, the training programme was shifted to Kigali following the complications in the visa policies of the United Arab Emirates, which Adeseyoju admitted affected participation and informed the relocation to Kigali in Rwanda.

Speaking on this year’s edition titled 2025 Kigali Master Class: Compliance, Enterprise, Risk Management and Financial Analysis, Adeseyoju said the five-day programme is DataPro’s offering to operators in West Africa, as participants will be drawn from Nigeria, Gambia, Sierra Leone, and other Anglophone countries in West Africa.

In the notice sent to participants of the event which will run from September 8-12, this year, the organisers stated that the training is to ensure that management of the real sector is exposed to the relationship between those tools and techniques used in compliance, enterprise risk in terms of monitoring, and ensuring that companies are run sustainably.

“A sound compliance professional should understand the language and principles of Enterprise Risk Management. The same applies to the Risk Manager in understanding the compliance ecosystem. Compliance and Risk Management are Siamese twins in securing the safety, soundness, security, and stability of any institution.

“With the escalating levels of fraud, corruption, and other financial crimes around the world, the understanding of the red flags and risks involved in financial statements has now become a must for Executive Management and Board Members. This is why we have designed our 2025 Kigali Master Class Program on Compliance, Enterprise Risk Management, and Financial Analysis to equip Executive Management and Board Members with the right tools to perform their functions effectively,” the company stated.

Setting the records straight, Adeseyoju stated, “From credit rating perspectives, we are noted for supporting the emerging markets- fintech, property tech, agric tech. The focus is to build new business frontiers because some of the established quoted firms have embedded structures already, but in some emerging market companies, compliance issues are not given much attention.”

Speaking on the recent fate of some fintech companies, especially in Nigeria, Adeseyoju said some of them don’t pay attention to issues of enterprise risk, financing, and compliance, adding that even when they pay attention to finances, they do so without understanding the markets. “They need the knowledge of the fundamental details required to earn good ratings,” he said.

He explained that compliance, governance, and disclosure are needed when going for ratings, saying there is a need for them to step up their game as their financial results would be subjected to tests and projections. These and other issues, according to him, will dominate discussions in Kigali.

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