Dike Onwuamaeze
Vice President Kashim Shettima has charged the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRC) to transform its new headquarters into a centre of regulatory innovation, integrity and excellence that will enhance Nigeria’s financial reporting standards and make the country proud.
Shettima said this yesterday, during the official inauguration of the FRC’s headquarters in Allen Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos State.
He said: “Today, we are commissioning a building, but our task is to commission confidence, accountability, professional excellence, a stronger institutional foundation for the Nigerian economy.
“To the governing board of FRC, management and staff, this building belongs to you, but its purpose belongs to Nigeria.
“Use it wisely, fill it with excellence, make it a center of regulatory innovation, make it a home of integrity, and make Nigeria proud.”
Shettima said the unveiling of the building should serve as the very foundation upon which trust is build on the Nigerian economy.
“A nation may have oil, gas, fertile land, talented people and abundant capital, but without trust, capital becomes costless, investment becomes hesitant, and prosperity becomes fragile.
“As the Nigerian saying goes, when the roots are deep, there is no reason to fear the wind,” he said.
The vice president said the inauguration of the headquarters was, therefore, consistent with the President Tinubu’s larger vision of building a Nigerian state whose institutions can stand confidently in a marketplace of nations, “and I must commend the leadership and staff of the FRC for understanding that institutional building is not an event, it is a journey.
“This beautiful building is more than concrete, glass and steel, it is an investment in institutional memory, it is an investment in professional excellence, it is an investment in regulatory independence and effectiveness, and it is a physical expression of something more important, the confidence that Nigeria places in the work of the FRC.”
In her keynote address during the ceremony, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, said “this headquarters is an important physical asset.”
Oduwole said: “Yet, for a regulator, perhaps the most valuable asset is trust.
“The building we commission today should, therefore, represent much more than permanence.
“It should represent credibility, competence, responsiveness and confidence in the rules and institutions that govern our markets.”
She said achieving that would require more than incentives.
“It requires certainty. Investors understand commercial risk. They assess it, price it and make decisions accordingly. What is much harder to price is regulatory uncertainty.
“This is why predictability, transparency and efficient administration are not simply conveniences for business. They are fundamental components of national competitiveness,” she said.
The Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, in his address during the event said “we are not just commissioning a building but to celebrate the strengthening of an institution whose work has direct impact on confidence, investment and the growth of our economic opportunity in our country.
“There is no modern economy that runs without trust. You can see that capital will be enhanced, enterprise innovation, they will all come together but it can only happen in an environment where trust has been earned.
“Investors need to trust the information available to them, businesses need confidence in the rules on which they operate, shareholders need assurances that their interests are protected and the public need to know that the institution that are responsible for safeguarding the integrity of our economy are doing their job very well and that is why the FRC is such an important arm of our government.”
Delivering the welcome address, the Executive Secretary/CEO of FRC, Dr. Rabiu Olowo, said the event represented the opening of a new chapter in the history of the FRC.
Olowo added: “Today is about celebrating an institution that has served Nigeria for more than 40 years.
“Today is about honoring the men and the women who built this institution with others.
“Today is about recognising the support of government and our stakeholders.
“And most importantly, today is about declaring that the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria has entered a new era with its physical infrastructure that must match the importance of its statutory mandate.”
He said the story of the FRC’s institutional journey began with the establishment of the Nigerian Accounting Standard Board (NASB).