If social impact programmes will achieve their envisaged outcomes and positively impact the beneficiaries and society at large there is the need to involve professional bodies in the formulation of such interventions.

A financial expert, Matthew Pepple, who advanced this position in a post on his Facebook wall on Monday, March 21, 2022, harped on the necessity of a broad-based engagement paradigm that would coalesce ideas for best outcomes in fashioning out people-oriented policies and programmes.

“I suggest professional bodies in the Kingdom should be part of those that will design the structure of intervention programs.”

In the face of several poorly conceptualized initiatives and failed interventionist programmes across the country, especially, the Niger Delta region and his home community, Bonny Island, the Chartered Accountant stressed that it was time to get it right.  

Pepple, who is also the Vice Chairman of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), Bonny Kingdom and District Society, volunteered some advice to entrepreneurs, whom he urged to deepen their knowledge base regarding their respective businesses.

“I believe many of our entrepreneurs in the Kingdom will do better if they understand that their business is an entity distinct from themselves. This understanding will enable them care for the health of their business.”

His counsel, which might be a subtle charge to entrepreneurs to transit their businesses from the black to white economy by having them registered with the appropriate statutory regulatory authorities, was targeted at business owners who seem not to be in touch with current realities in Nigeria and globally.  

Statistics indicate that more than 50% of businesses in Bonny LGA are still steeped in the black economy without a legal identity, economic address, governance structure and visibility plan.

This situation was recently bemoaned by the Bonny Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (BOCCIMA), and stakeholders alerted on the need to bridge the discomforting gap in the quest of transforming the business outlook of the area.