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Heads of public institutions must strengthen their financial management and establish institutional credibility before seeking additional funding for reforms, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT), Jane Egerton-Idehen, has advised.
Egerton-Idehen made the call during an episode of the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation Podcast moderated by Fatima Kere-Ahmed, Acting Director of the Process of Crime Recovery Management Department at the Code of Conduct Bureau and an alumna of the Aig-Imoukhuede Public Leaders Programme.
Speaking on what public institutions need to attract sustained investment, Egerton-Idehen said leaders must first demonstrate that their organisations can responsibly manage existing resources and translate available capital into measurable outcomes.
“It is so important you fix your financial fragility before you go and ask for more money,” she said.
Financial credibility starts with transparency
According to Egerton-Idehen, building financial credibility does not necessarily require institutions to generate commercial returns.
Rather, basic governance practices such as transparent and regular financial reporting, sound financial controls and consistent delivery against institutional objectives can provide important evidence of an organisation’s ability to manage funding responsibly.
“It could be basic habits you consider as a leader, like transparent, regular financial reporting,” she said.
She stressed that institutions seeking support from external funders and investors must demonstrate that they have the systems and capacity required 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 added.
Clean audits can strengthen investor confidence
Egerton-Idehen noted that financial credibility should not be assessed solely through the lens of commercial performance.
For public institutions, clean audit outcomes, functioning organisational structures and evidence of effective internal processes can also help establish confidence among 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.
The approach places institutional governance and accountability at the centre of efforts to secure additional funding, particularly where public institutions are seeking resources for long-term reforms.
Trust remains central to funding decisions
Also speaking on the podcast, Africa Director of the MacArthur Foundation, Kole Shettima, agreed that trust plays a critical role in financing institutional reforms.
Shettima noted that there is no perfect formula for predicting which reform initiatives will succeed, meaning funders often have to make calculated decisions based on the credibility, experience and track record of the leaders and institutions involved.
The confidence of funders, he suggested, is therefore influenced not only by the proposed reform itself but also by the ability of its leadership to demonstrate responsible stewardship and deliver against commitments.
Leaders urged to make transparency proactive
Egerton-Idehen advised institutional leaders to make transparency an ongoing practice rather than responding to financial information requests only when they arise.
She maintained that organisations that consistently demonstrate sound financial management, transparent reporting and the ability to execute their mandates would be better positioned to attract sustained support for institutional reforms.
The advice highlights a broader challenge facing public-sector institutions seeking external financing: additional capital cannot substitute for weak financial governance or inadequate institutional capacity.
Strengthening internal systems, maintaining credible financial records and demonstrating the ability to translate resources into results, she said, can provide the foundation for building the trust required to secure and sustain external funding.
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