Worried that risk management is done in Nigeria on silo basis, Risk Managers Association of Nigeria (RIMAN) has called on the government to create a risks and legal frameworks in the country.
This will help the government establish the national risks institute or assessment centre as well as chief risk officers at both the Federal and States level who will advice the government on various kinds of risks including concentration, leakage and operation risks among others.
“If we cone as a nation and create this integrated framework, Nigeria can now have chief risk officer who is in charge of the framework and then pursue it,” Jude Monye, president, RIMAN told journalists in Lagos.
Risk management, he explained is a process of identifying men managing, measuring and controlling risks. “It helps you to know inherent risks in what you do. The value to the nation means that there must be somebody telling the whole country that this oil revenue alone is concentration risks; we can’t depend on one product to finance a nation.
The same person will begin to say we need to get people of very strong character that can avoid leakage. Leakage is a very big risk. Then there are operation risks. What kind of persons is working in our institutions whether federal or state even the agencies. What kind of background checks do we do on them? There is a lot that the chief risks officer or the national risks institute or assessment centre will do.”
Monye acknowledged that the association needs some significant improvement in terms of its scope of delivery and reaching out to people outside by putting the value proposition for everyone to see.
“We need to showcase our product, competencies and see how we can be of help”, he said, noting that membership grew from less than one thousand to over one thousand last year.
While concerned that institutional membership is low compared to individual membership, he urged other institutions to join the association.
“Hospital needs risk management and should have risks managers and they should be part of this association. It is not limited to banking. The onus is to expand our curriculum and scope of operation from being core financial to other risks areas”, he said.
“The country must have a risk management process manned by risks officer and other risks professions. We are also sustaining this practice by providing guidance, training, education, and equipping them to various emerging and dynamics of risks in the space where they operate,” Monye said.
HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE
