CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE CODES AND THEIR MECHANISMS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Corporate governance is described by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as ‘the structure by which business corporations are directed and governed.’ The corporate governance structure spells out the rules and methods for making corporate decisions, as well as the distribution of rights and obligations among different players in the organization, such as the board of directors, managers, shareholders, and other stakeholders. It also provides the structure through which the company's goals are determined, as well as the means of achieving those goals and tracking performance. The purpose of this article is to trace the evolution of Nigerian corporate governance from the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 1990 to the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2020. It goes on to look at Nigeria's corporate governance structure and how it has influenced a variety of internal and external economic issues. Directors, secretaries, auditors, and shareholders are all examples of corporate governance processes in this study. It shows that the development of corporate governance codes in Nigeria was influenced by the development of corporate governance codes in other countries, particularly the Cadbury Report of 1992 and the King Report of 1994, in which the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) established The Committee on Corporate Governance of Public Companies in Nigeria. The approach adopted in carrying out this research is doctrinal method by consulting text books, journals, articles and internet sources.