The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT), Jane Egerton-Idehen, has advised leaders of African public institutions to establish strong financial credibility before seeking additional funding for institutional reforms. Egerton-Idehen gave the advice during an episode of the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation Podcast, moderated by Fatima Kere-Ahmed, Acting Director, Process of Crime Recovery... The post Egerton-Idehen: Public Institutions Mus
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT), Jane Egerton-Idehen, has advised leaders of African public institutions to establish strong financial credibility before seeking additional funding for institutional reforms.
Egerton-Idehen gave the advice during an episode of the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation Podcast, moderated by Fatima Kere-Ahmed, Acting Director, Process of Crime Recovery Management Department, Code of Conduct Bureau, and an alumna of the Aig-Imoukhuede Public Leaders Programme.
Speaking on strategies for attracting sustained investment into public institutions, Egerton-Idehen said institutional leaders must first demonstrate their ability to manage existing resources responsibly and deliver measurable results.
“It is so important you fix your financial fragility before you go and ask for more money,” she said.
According to her, building financial credibility starts with basic but essential practices, including transparent and regular financial reporting, as well as maintaining a consistent record of meeting institutional targets.
She stressed that potential funders and investors need evidence that an institution has the capacity to absorb and effectively deploy additional capital.
“There should be some kind of evidence that the institution itself can actually execute that capital, absorb it, execute it,” she said.
Egerton-Idehen, however, noted that institutional credibility should not be measured solely by commercial or economic returns.
“It doesn’t have to be delivering commercial economic value. It could be clean audits, functioning structure. Those start to matter,” she said.
She also called on reform leaders to adopt proactive transparency by voluntarily making financial information available rather than waiting for funders, regulators or the public to demand it.
“Publish your numbers before anybody asks them because that’s how you also gain credibility,” she said. “Don’t wait for people to tell you. Disclose it even when you’re not asked.”
Also speaking during the podcast, Africa Director of the MacArthur Foundation, Kole Shettima, agreed that trust plays a central role in funding decisions.
Shettima said there was no perfect formula for predicting which institutional reforms would succeed, noting that funders often have to take calculated risks based on the credibility, experience and level of trust they have in reform leaders and institutions.
The speakers emphasised that financial discipline, transparency, institutional capacity and trust are critical foundations for attracting and sustaining funding for public-sector reforms.
