Financial Reporting Council releases code of governance guidelines

The Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) has released the timeline for companies in Nigeria to comply with the Nigerian Code of Corporate Governance 2018.

Paragraph 1(2) of the Regulation on the Adoption and Compliance with the Code issued pursuant to Section 73 of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria Act of 2011 provides that all public companies must report on the application of the code in their annual reports for financial years ending after January 1, 2020, in the form and manner prescribed by the FRCN.

Based on the timelines on the website of FRCN, companies with financial year ending January 30, February 29, March 31 and April 30 were given July 30 as the deadline for compliance for the 2020 period.

For companies which financial year ended on May 31, June 30, July 31, and August 31, they were given a timeline of August 30, September 29, October 29 and November 29 respectively to comply for the 2020 and 2021 financial periods.

The FRCN said it had set up a Web Portal Committee (WPC) comprising stakeholders, which contributed to the development of an online portal for electronic submissions of reports on compliance with the NCCG 2018.

It said members of the WPC also worked with the FRCN and others to develop a reporting template to simplify and harmonise the code in compliance with reporting by reporting entities.