Board composition: Emulate MTN, group urges multinationals
Multinational corporations operating in Nigeria should emulate telecommunications firm MTN Nigeria by ensuring good representation of Nigerians on their Board of Directors, Business Renaissance Group (BRG) has said.
BRG made the request at a special media briefing addressed by its President Mazi Omife I. Omife, in Lagos at the weekend.
Omife noted that the nation’s recent corporate history is replete with some of the best-known and respected corporations that have operated within the shores of Nigeria for as long as 50 years yet membership of their Boards are skewed in favour of non-Nigerians.
He observed that most of these notable multinationals have only recently, under compulsion, deemed it expedient to enlarge their Boards of Directors to include Nigerians.
Omife commended the recent reconstitution of the Board of Directors of MTN Nigeria as a veritable example of how best to appreciate local human resource.
It applauded the appointment of the likes of Dr Ernest Ndukwe, Mrs Omobola Johnson and Mrs Ifueko Okauru to the Board of MTN Nigeria. These appointments, Omifeobserved, is coming on the heels of the immediate past board headed by the venerable Dr. Pascal Dozie with the likes of Gbenga Oyebode, a corporate czar and Tunde Folawiyo, an astute entrepreneur. All these, he avowed, are coming in less than two decades of MTN operation in Nigeria.
The recent reconstitution of the Board of Directors of MTN Nigeria, according to Omife, is a veritable example of how best to appreciate local human resource.
He applauded the inclusion of two outstanding Nigerian women Omobola Johnson and Ifueko Okauru into the MTN Nigeria Board. He opined that their inclusion demonstrates gender sensitivity in a most noble manner that is devoid of mere tokenism that stem from affirmative action. This is because the two Nigerian women, Johnson and Okauru, unarguably, rank among the brightest and most accomplished Nigerians.