NAN-HE-7
Guidelines
By Franca Ofili
Abuja, Jan. 29, 2017 (NAN) The Centre for Management Development (CMD) says it will provide guidelines for the accreditation and regulation of management consulting firms in the country
The Director-General of the centre, Mr Kabir Usman, stated this at a News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja.
Cue in audio 1 (Usman on guidelines)
“We are supposed to regulate them; (they are supposed to be) registered by us.
“They are supposed to be accredited by us.
“There are ethics in training; we are to appear more often in the media to create awareness.
“We will give them guidelines; there are benchmarks; there are accreditation standards and best practices.
“We have been to U.S., U.K. and other parts of Europe; so we know the best practises.
“All we need do is to share with them.’’
Cue out audio 1
Management consulting refers to the industry and practice of providing guidance to management in order to improve the performance of organisations.
The client organisations are typically businesses, but management consultants also advise governmental agencies and non-profit organisations.
Such consultants help gather information, synthesize insights, and communicate solutions and tend to spend much of their days in team meetings, client meetings, data analysis, and slide creation.
He observed that in most cases foreign experts, who did not have the required competence and approval, were often seen in hotels across the country training Nigerian manpower.
According to him, what is even more worrisome is that some of the acclaimed experts do not understand the environment.
Usman alleged that some quack management consultants in the country harboured, protected and patronised such foreign experts.
The director general said that the centre would ensure that Nigerian consultants found to have given so much patronage to such experts were made to face the wrath of the law.
Cue in audio 2 (Usman on funding to tackle foreign experts patronage )
“We will get at them because we have got a lot of support from our Minister of Budget and Planning, who will give us more funding to tackle these issues.
“Government spends a lot of money on training.
“What we are trying to do is to make sure that this management consultants work closely with us.’’
Cue out audio 2
Usman expressed regret that most people had made it a habit of venturing into the management consulting profession after retirement even when they were not qualified to do so.
This, he said, was especially so because there was no adequate regulation in the system.
He decried a situation where a programme that was supposed to been concluded in five days was done in one day with the printing of the attendance certificates having been achieved in advance.
He said although that had been the tradition in the past, it should stop as it was inimical to the development of an efficient management consulting system.
Usman said it was unfortunate that even the trainees in most cases, were only interested in the allowances attached to the training and not the knowledge they stood to gain.
The director-general said such practices should stop, adding that the centre would ensure that training ethics were always observed. (NAN)
FNO/AFA/YEE
Edited by Felix Ajide/Emmanuel Yashim
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