Fix Financial Fragility Before Seeking Funds, NIGCOMSAT Boss Tells Leaders

By Eneole Otorkpa, Abuja

The managing director and chief executive officer of the Nigerian Communications Satellite (NIGCOMSAT) Limited, Jane Egerton-Idehen, has urged heads of public institutions to put their finances in order before seeking additional funding for reforms.

Egerton-Idehen gave the piece of advice during an episode of the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation Podcast, moderated by the acting director, Process of Crime Recovery Management Department, Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), Fatima Kere-Ahmed.

She said institutions must first prove they can responsibly manage existing resources before attracting fresh investments.

The NIGCOMSAT boss said financial credibility starts with transparent reporting and a consistent record of meeting institutional targets.

“It is so important you fix your financial fragility before you go and ask for more money,” Egerton-Idehen said.

Egerton-Idehen said funders and investors would want evidence that an institution could absorb funds and translate them into measurable results.

“There should be some kind of evidence that the institution itself can actually execute that capital, absorb it and execute it,” she said.

Egerton-Idehen, however, said public institutions did not necessarily have to demonstrate commercial returns before gaining the confidence of potential funders.

“It doesn’t have to be delivering commercial economic value. It could be clean audits, functioning structure.

Those start to matter,” she said.

She stressed that such basic indicators could help institutions establish the credibility required to attract sustained investment.

Also speaking, the Africa Director of the MacArthur Foundation, Kole Shettima, agreed that trust remained a major factor in financing decisions.

Shettima said there was no perfect formula for determining which institutional reforms would succeed, noting that funders often had to take calculated risks.

According to him, the credibility, experience and trust enjoyed by reform leaders and institutions could influence funding decisions.

Egerton-Idehen further called on reform leaders to make transparency proactive rather than wait until they were challenged to disclose financial information.

“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.”