Nigerian Breweries Plc, the nation’s leading brewing company, has won the 2016 Institute of Directors Corporate Governance Award. The company was presented the award at the Annual Directors Dinner of the Institute of Directors of Nigeria, which held on Thursday, December 1, 2016 in Lagos.
According to the Institute of Directors, the “IOD Corporate Governance Award” reinforces the importance of best practice amongst corporate entities and is open to outstanding corporate bodies quoted on The Nigerian Stock Exchange. It said that its governing council committee responsible for awards in collaboration with The Nigerian Stock Exchange received three nominations of companies quoted on the Exchange that were Corporate Governance compliant. Out of those companies, Nigerian Breweries emerged as the Institute winner of the Corporate Governance Award for 2016 as endorsed by the Governing Council.
To be recognised in the category, companies have to demonstrate a high level of effectiveness across the four pillars of corporate governance – Accountability, Transparency, Fairness and Responsibility. They also have to achieve an enterprise-wide culture of governance and ethics in risk and probity compliance, among other factors, to be presented with the award.
While receiving the award on behalf of the company, the Chairman, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Chief Kola Jamodu, CFR, said “We are delighted to receive this award in recognition of our effort in ensuring that we integrate corporate governance principles into our organizational culture. More importantly, we are encouraged to have been voted the winner of the Institute of Directors Corporate Governance Award for 2016. This is a worthy recognition and an incentive to encourage us to do more.” The Chairman attended the award ceremony with the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Breweries Plc, Mr. Nicolaas Vervelde.
It would be recalled that in 2015, Nigerian Breweries Plc was named the winner of The Nigerian Stock Exchange NSE-CEO’s Distinguished Award for Compliance. The award also known as the Most Complaint Listed Firm award is given by the NSE to the company that demonstrates the highest degree of compliance with the rules and regulations regarding disclosure obligations of listed companies to the exchange in a particular year. Nigerian Breweries Plc also demonstrated its recognition for the importance of corporate governance in 2015 to clinch the coveted award.