The Director General of Securities and Exchange Commis­sion (SEC), Ms. Arunma Oteh, has disclosed that Nigeria ranked 132 out of 144 countries on a recently conducted study on ethical behaviours of firms.
According to Oteh, who made this disclosure Thurs­day in Lagos at the 2nd Annu­al Christopher Kolade lecture on business integrity, South Africa ranked 35, China 55, India 58 while Brazil ranked 107.
Also, on issue of diversion of public fund, she said Ni­geria only performed better than two countries; Venezuela and Argentina while the re­cently, world economic forum (WEF) global competiveness result for 2014/2015 period ranked Nigeria 127 out 147 countries.
She noted that with above result there is urgent need to focus on integrity while doing business in Nigeria adding that whether Nigeria is mis­understood and ranked lower than it should be, it must have a paradigm shift where it focused on proper conduct to become competitive and remain relevant to today’s global economy.
“Companies and public institutions must also imbibe international best practice in doing any business practice”, Oteh said
Speaking on the theme, “The business case for busi­ness integrity”, the SEC DG noted that integrity signifies wholeness of virtue, whole­ness of a person, institution or society.
“It allures concept of pu­rity, soundness and morality. Trustworthiness, consistency in doing the right thing is what comes to mind once integrity is mentioned”, she said.

Nigerian firms ranked low on ethical behaviours –Oteh