Our aim is to make Glanvill Ethoven industry leader —Banjo

Ogbeni Lanre Banjo is a certified public (chartered) accountant with wealth of experience in both government and the private sector. He was the Director of Policy and Procedures for the District of Columbia Government before his promotion to the Director of Accounting at the University of the District of Columbia. He was a co-chair of African and Caribbean Organization that mobilized Africans and Caribbeans to ensure the return of the late Mayor for life of Washington, DC, the Honorable Marion Barry. The three-time Ogun State governorship contestant is the current chairman of Glanvill Enthoven, an insurance broking firm, which is a subsidiary of the Odu’a Investment Company Limited. In this interview, he speaks about how the board he leads is working to ensure greater profitability for the 60-year old company. Excerpts.

 

WHILE coming on board as chairman of Glanvill Enthoven, what vision and ideas did you have for the company and how far have you gone to make it a reality?

Uplifting staff morale which would stimulate them to elevate the growth of the company and facilitate creative business ideas was primary to me. More importantly, wastage control and designing, maintaining and implementing sound internal control to minimize corruption in the system.  There was an occasion when I sat with the staff of Glanvill to set up an accounting system that would facilitate the preparation of financial statements. I was in Glanvill for a week without collecting a kobo.  I also joined the brilliant staff of Glanvill to write policy and procedures and I did not get a penny from the company. My mission is to save Glanvill money.  Whatever I can use my expertise as an auditor and accountant to achieve in Glanvill, I engage myself in.   My unalloyed appreciation goes to Governor Ibikunle Amosun who gave me the opportunity to serve the Ogun State government. It really opened my eyes to the rot in the society. The society where they will be crying change, and when that change knocks on their doors, they will resist it because of their corrupt practice and sick mindset.  Sometimes those you think abhor corruption will kick like a chicken in a frying pan once a move is made to minimise corruption if they think it will affect them or their fellow crooks.

 

Good corporate governance is still a major challenge for many companies in Nigeria. Indeed, many corporate chieftains merely pay lip service to it. How is the Glanvill board, under your leadership, ensuring good corporate governance?

Yes, that is true but Glanvill is blessed.  I found out that most directors appointed by governors see it as a way to make money and as such they collude with management to milk some entities dry. Many have not even gone through the Code of Corporate Governance and as such do not know their duties and rights.  Where the management is ethical, directors will frustrate the management and vice versa. In some companies, where board members resolve to doing what is right in accordance with the law, accounting and auditing standards and managements see it as a threat to their corrupt practices, managements have been found to arrogate illegal powers to themselves and result to waging wars against directors, telling staff members that directors have no power. Whereas, the Code of Corporate Governance, the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) rules, accounting and auditing standards hold directors responsible for management functions. Management will even concoct lies to tell governors for directors’ removal. So, in many organisations, where directors are appointed by governors, some directors are fearful of this. But this man that you are talking to respects authority, abhors corrupt practice and would not tolerate any disdainful violations of the law. I am not an economic slave to any position.  Many directors are politicians in sick Nigerian context. There are a few highly principled professionals who had served on the board of Glanvills.  Under the chairmanship of my late brother, Otunba Samuel Adetifa of Ekiti State, who was a chartered accountant of repute, and Pa Adebanjo Edema of Ondo State, we provided quality oversight. Under my leadership, I want to imbue directors’ knowledge, ensure that every director knows and exercises his/her right as enshrined in the Nigerian Code of Corporate Governance.  Each director will be made to have a copy to enable him/her know his/her rights, responsibilities and duties. Sub-committees allowed by the code will be established and made to function as they should.

 

Some boards also make excessive demands on the management of the companies they lead. What is the relationship between your board and the company management?

Since I have been on this board, I am not aware of any board member who made any demand not to talk of excessive demands on the management. That is why I said Glanvill is blessed. Glanvill is a highly regulated insurance brokerage firm and the board could be dissolved by NAICOM, if we are found to be aloof of management activities.

 

What is the potential of Glanvill, what new opportunities is the company exploring? How is your board helping the company reclaim its old glory of being number one in its sector?

Glanvill Enthoven Insurance Brokers & Pensions Consultants Ltd is an insurance brokerage firm incorporated in 1957 to provide risk solutions services to the insuring public. Glanvill, as a subsidiary and a member of Odu‘a  Group of Companies, has a great potential vis-a-vis- the ownership structure of Odu’a Investment Company Ltd that manages the business interests of South-West governments in Nigeria comprising, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti inclusive of Lagos State. These economically viable states engage heavily in infrastructure development activities and capital projects in nation building which would create opportunities for Glanvill as an insurance broking company.

Glanvill is blessed to have effective directors willing and ready to ensure good corporate governance as required by the laws of the country. Members of the board actively support the company to reclaim its past glory by using our business connections within the owner states and every sector of the economy to improve on the income base of the company.  The board is accountable and responsible for performance and affairs of the company.  The board defines the strategic goals of Glanvill and ensures that its human and financial resources are effectively deployed towards attaining those goals. The board delegates its authority to the management, and such delegation does not in any way diminish the overall responsibility of the board and its directors are still held accountable and responsible for the affairs and performance of the company.  Our board observes the highest ethical standards. If the management is headed by smart, ethical, and decent individual who is respectful of the board, there should be no need to erect a wall that would not create environmentally sustainable basis for oversight in accordance with the laws. It is my experience in Nigeria that when management has something to hide, the head will be quick to gag directors thus treating the laws with levity.

 

Nigeria seems to have wandered into moral wilderness or desert, as many people including our business, religious and political leaders don’t care about issues such as integrity, diligence, excellence, among others, where did we get it wrong as a nation and how can we restore these timeless and useful values into the Nigerian society?

I may not able to answer this question the way I would want to answer it, because the focus here is Glanvill. I am not known to be a double talker. I must say though that unfortunately, citizens are now programmed to be morally bankrupt and many are not trying to retrieve themselves. Wars are waged against the few who stick to principles and discipline. The few who are dogged about doing things the right way in a local setting, state, the nation, companies and institutions are badmouthed by those who forget that when they expire they would not go with all the money they are fighting for.  More painful is the fact that Nigerians, who are being fought for, utter platitude about someone fighting for them when you expect them to pray for your success. Hypocrisy, dishonesty and greed have torn our social fabrics. With a few of us totally submitting ourselves for divine intervention, I pray that the intervention comes fast.

 

Year 2017 marks the 60th anniversary of Glanvill Enthoven in the insurance sector in Nigeria. The company has maintained a low profile as regards this. Why did the company keep such low profile?

The company’s decision to maintain a low profile is not unconnected with the state of recession of the economy which has impacted negatively on our performance.  The anniversary is worth celebrating, but we are consciously minimising our costs and working towards improving on our clientele base.

 

One of the major challenges facing insurance companies in Nigeria is low capitalisation. Glanvill is not exempted. For example, its authorised share capital is N175 million and the company has just paid N165 million. Low capital limits the capacities of insurance companies in undertaking multimillion dollar insurance risks for multinational companies like those in the oil and gas business. What is the company doing about its low capitalisation?

Glanvill is a member of the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB) and duly registered with NAICOM. The company has an authorised share capital of N175 million with N165 million fully paid up. By virtue of high standard of our services and caliber of our clientele, we maintain a professional indemnity insurance cover of N500, 000,000.00. As a brokerage firm, the Insurance Act requirement for share capital is N10million which the company far exceeds.

 

Some insurance companies have carved new markets for themselves by developing and marketing new products such as Takaful (targeted at Muslims). They are doing pretty well and growing their business portfolio.  What is Glanvill doing to grow its own portfolio and increase its market share?

Ours is a value-added service industry specific risk and insurance broking services focused to meet each client’s insurance protection needs. Glanvill provides tailor-made insurance broking and advisory services best suited to each client’s need. These range from commerce and industry, energy (oil & gas), power and infrastructure, construction, communications, marine, aviation & aerospace, financial services, government and statutory corporations, educational services, personal and private wealth insurance. Our strength is our unparalleled local knowledge with global experience and commitment to deliver specialty services as an invaluable partner in providing seamless support to meeting risk and insurance management objectives. Glanvill is making efforts to make itself visible in corporate and manufacturing sectors business. We partner with some insurance companies to sell their retail products, and some as consultants because of particular strength they have with sectoral businesses which we found valuable. Additionally, we are doing re-engineering of our process to ensure prompt service delivery to our clients.