Financial institutions, others enrol officers for training

This was disclosed by the Chairman, Compliance Institute, Nigeria, Pattison Boleigha in a recent chat with Pulse.

Boleigha said the organisation is committed to helping banks and other financial institutions to enhance compliance culture in the country.

Speaking at a certification workshop organised for compliance officers of banks and other financial institutions in Lagos, Boleigha said, “We will continue to build professionals who will propagate compliance culture across the country, and we feel if we do that in the course of a few years, we will have the kind of people who will promote good governance in the country. Then, we can be bold to say that our country is at the state that we want it to be.

“As an initial starting point, we started from our catchment areas,which are financial institutions but we actually intend to spread the compliance culture across all sectors of our environment. As time goes on, we are expecting to bring in our compliance colleagues from oil and gas, telecom, manufacturing, aviation and government that is our ultimate objective.

"But for now, we are starting with our catchment area and we believe we will make great impact in financialinstitutions. When we started from Committee of Chief Compliance Officers of banks, we already have it in our minds the kind of problems in financial institutions and so we set up this institute to address the gap in knowledge. What we are doing is to come up with Diploma and Certificate programmes to address these issues in the industry,” he stated.

Boleigha further hinted that the institute is out to address the issue of right leadership in enhancing the compliance culture but stressed that it is not a regulatory body but a private effort, which ultimate intention is to apply for a charter.

“If approved by the National Assembly, it will then make the institute become a national institution and by so doing, we will be able to manage the compliance professionals and set standards. We are not going to be giving sanctions, but we will ensure that sanction within the institutions are meted out from time to time,” declared Boleigha

According to him, the institute plans to extend its training outside Lagos to Abuja and Port Harcourt and other areas.

On his part, the a member of the bard of trustee, Raheem Owodeyi, said the need to instil compliance culture in the citizens has become necessary and relevant, hence the berth of the institute.

Owodeyi stressed that this is the only way to address some of the problems prevalent in the country's financial and other sector.

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He also said the compliance institute is geared towards setting, maintaining and promoting best practice standards for the compliance profession.

“We need to instil the culture of compliance in the country, because that is the only way we can address some of the problems we are having today in this country such as the issue of corruption, money laundering and others,” Owodeyi stated.

Owodeyi also said that the compliance institute has a mission to promote regulatory standards in the industry for a respectable compliance profession.