The Board has overall responsibility for ensuring that the company is appropriately managed, adheres to principles of good corporate governance and achieves its strategic objectives.

Axxela Limited is firmly committed to effective corporate governance principles and best practices. Accordingly, though not a public company, Axxela Limited generally operates in line with the principles set out in SEC’s Code of Corporate Governance for Public Companies (SEC Code), to the extent appropriate for its shareholding structure and the size and nature of its business.

Bolaji Osunsanya

Axxela fosters and cascades corporate governance principles through a number of initiatives including periodic awareness sessions and presentations. The company’s core values of professionalism, partnership and excellence are exemplified through these initiatives. In an attempt to better discharge its oversight functions in accordance with the Code of Corporate Governance and global best practices, the Board alongside the Management team and members of the Safety, Audit and Risk Committee ensure the implementation of policies which are geared towards improving performance and strategising to actualise the expectation of its stakeholders.

In accordance with the SEC Code requirement that the Board should be of a sufficient size relative to the scale and complexity of the company’s operations and the company’s Articles of Association which provides that the Company’s Board shall consist of not more than seven Directors, the Board consists of the Chairman, five non-executive directors (one of which is an independent director) and one executive director (the Chief Executive Officer). The position of the Chief Executive/Managing Director and the Chairman are held by separate persons in accordance with the SEC Code.

The Board meets regularly to set broad policies for the company’s business and operations and it ensures that a professional relationship is maintained with the company’s Auditors in order to promote transparency in financial and non-financial reporting.

The Board has the following Board Committees which provide guidance and recommendations to the full Board:

  • Strategy and Finance Committee
  • Safety, Audit and Risk Committee
  • Governance and Remuneration Committee
Axxela Limited has a well-established internal control system for identifying, managing and monitoring risks. The Risk, Internal and Controls and Audit functions have reporting responsibilities to the Board of Directors (through the Safety, Audit and Risk Committee) and have had appropriately trained personnel and undergo training on current business have and best practice issues.

A range of decisions is specifically reserved for the Board to ensure it retains proper direction and control of the Company. The Board is authorized to delegate some of these functions to executive directors (or other officers) who are responsible for the day to day management of the business. The document delegating Authority to certain directors and committees was approved in 2018 and sets the financial limits on the decisions that can be taken in relation to identified matters, as well as monetary spending thresholds above which Board approval is required.

Axxela recognises the principles of fairness, integrity and transparency in all business dealings, as entrenched in the Company’s Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, as well as its Anti-Corruption Policy, and in consonance with our vision to align ourselves with international best practices. Corruption has been identified as the single greatest obstacle to this stance, so the fight against it is imperative. This policy is an expression of our combat against bribery and corruption in tune with the global campaign. Axxela Limited, as an organisation, believes that effective implementation of this policy will strengthen our reputation, build the respect of our employees, raise credibility with key stakeholders, increase shareholder value and ultimately support national and global economic growth.

In this regard, the Company has put in place the following policies to assure compliance with anti-corruption and governance standards and practices: