Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, ICAN, has said there is need to strenghten shareholders’ groups  to make them more intellectually active.

“There is a general consensus today that organisations with active shareholders are most likely to adopt good corporate governance principles and ultimately, would experience better performance and greater value creation’’, said  Major General (rtd) Sebastian  Owuama, President of the Institute.

‘’If shareholders do not attend annual general meetings and also fail to appoint any proxies, they would have lost the opportunity to influence the policies of their companies”, he said at a public lecture organised by the Calabar District Society of the Institute.
In a paper titled, ‘’Governance Issues: Transparency and Accountability as the bedrock for Sustainable Economic Development, he noted that, ‘’Unfortunately, non-attendance at meetings by shareholders is the rule rather than exception. Those who attend merely go there to fight for dividends and gift items.

Thus organisations with docile shareholder groups will certainly not be able to prod its board to greater productivity or performance. Value will not be created maximally and shareholders would be short-changed in terms of returns.  Here lies the justification for the proliferation of professional shareholder associations in the Nigerian business environment and the call for their activism.

‘’Therefore, the observed and commendable rapid growth in the number of shareholder associations in the last five years points to a reawakening of the consciousness of shareholders; a willingness on their part to take their investment destiny in their own hands. Indeed, they need to protect their investments by scrupulously monitoring the policies and activities of directors who they have entrusted with the responsibility of governance.

‘’This is the right way to go because their actions have implications for share prices and market capitalisation. Therefore, shareholder groups represent a formidable force that cannot be ignored. They need to be strengthened to make them more intellectually active.’’