Ethics Institute scores NIPC high on transparency, institutional development

By Miriam Humbe

Director-General, Ethics and Corporate Compliance Institute of Nigeria, Sir Agabaidu Chukwuemeka Jideani has commended Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) on its commitment to making mandatory information available on its website, transparency, freedom of information (FOI), capacity building of its staff on the FOI Act and institutional development.
He stated this in the company of officials from the Ministry of Justice, during a public institution implementation and compliance visit on the Executive Secretary/CEO, NIPC, Ms Yewande Sadiku at the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja.
While commending the Commission as one of a few government agencies that trained all its staff on the Freedom of Information Act, he stated that the Commission has become a benchmark on how to achieve compliance with FOI obligations and proactively publish the mandatory information required.
In response, NIPC’s Executive Secretary said that the Commission was working on improving its current national ranking, which resulted from staff’s hard work because of the belief that it could be done in-house.
She noted that the required reports were increasingly produced as soon as the quarter ended. With the improvement in FOI, she noted that the Commission was setting its sights on global standards in line with Nigeria’s Open Government Partnership (OGP) commitments.
NIPC recently upgraded its website (www.nipc.gov.ng) to meet the information demands of the investing community and other stakeholders. The upgraded site has a simplified design for easier navigation, and proactively provides information that should enable investors make better informed decisions on Nigeria as a preferred investment destination.
In September 2019, NIPC emerged second out of the 191 Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) that were assessed for the 2019 National FOI Compliance & Transparency Ranking.
The parameters for the ranking were proactive disclosures, responsiveness in the request for information, level of disclosure, FOI training, and timeliness.
In the coming year, the Ethics and Corporate Compliance Institute of Nigeria plans to partner with NIPC on a number of initiatives to support the Commission’s delivery of its investment promotion mandate.