The Strategic Role of Corporate Governance in National Development

Abstract

This paper focuses on the strategic role of corporate governance in National development and seeks to examine current best practices, the challenges, the failure and offered policy recommendations as panaceas for efficient implementation of empirically validated international corporate governance best practices in Nigeria. This paper identified the underdeveloped nature of the Nigerian economy as a major obstacle to the efficient functioning of corporate governance. Legally binding shareholders’ rights are undermined, members of the board of directors are randomly handpicked from a pool of cronies and there is a complete lack of transparency and disclosure in the system. Corporate governance is a process, not a state. The field is continually evolving, its initial focus was on the way in which individual corporations are directed and controlled. This led to the introduction of national codes of best practice. As the wider economic and social significance of corporate governance became apparent, international guidelines were published to advance its cause more broadly. These guidelines reflected the part which good governance can play in promoting economic growth and business integrity.