Former President, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Segun Ajibola has called on the Nigerian banking sector to give top priority to “Enterprise Risk Management”.
He spoke at the 2018 Presidential Valedictory address held at the CIBN Ijewere Hall in Lagos. Speaking on the theme “Enterprise Risk Management and Banking Industry: The Nexus” Ajibola informed stakeholders that “Risk Management was at the heart of the banking sector”.
He said there was a nexus between “Enterprise Risk Management” and banking performance. This according to him, is one of the reasons Switzerland has one of the most efficient financial systems, owing to the adoption of the “ERM” framework.
Ajibola informed stakeholders that in carrying out the report on “ERM” data was sourced from 11 deposit money banks in Nigeria, across the three tiers for the period 2006 to 2016.
The 19th President of the CIBN opined that Enterprise Risk Management coordinates all risks across an organization. The study according to him revealed that when risks are properly managed from all sides, banks performance improves.
From the research and analysis the economist gave the following recommendations on the adoption of the Enterprise Risk Management for Nigerian banks and other financial institutions, which include; the need for banks to fully migrate their risk management profile to the ERM platform; the need for the Board and Management of banks to show commitment in the implementation of ERM, the need for the integration of ERM, to be encouraged in other financial institutions, regulatory bodies should ensure that banks and other financial institutions adopt ERM framework.
He said that banks should engage and train all staff on ERM, management and staff of banks/financial institutions and other stakeholders, should see themselves as risk management ambassadors for the institutions and banks should continue to engage the services of credit, risk management, treasury and foreign exchange management, audit and compliance, domestic and foreign operations, ICT to minimize the risk on performance.