ISO:22031: What next for Access Bank, quoted coys?

LATEST UPDATE: ISO:22031: What next for Access Bank, quoted coys?

“The ISO 22031 award is not just significant for Access Bank, but to Ni­geria, as it will help boost Nigeria’s reputation in the global financial landscape by showing to the whole world especially the inter­national investors, that the country is prepared to test itself and do business in line with international best practices.”

These are the words of the United Kingdom acting Deputy High Commissioner and Director, UK Trade and Investment, Mr. Mike Purves, during the presenta­tion of ISO 22031 certificate for ‘Societal Security – Busi­ness Continuity Management Systems (BCMS) to Access Bank in Lagos recently. Ac­cording to Purves, the award, which was presented to the bank by the British Standard Institute(BSI) after about three months of rigorous busi­ness impact analysis across all the departments of the bank, was a clear manifestation that BSI’s help to improve stan­dard in Nigeria.

To Mr. Obinna Nwosu, the Group Deputy Managing Director of the bank, Access Bank deserves this award because it has chosen to seek certifications that require vari­ous preparatory processes and managed by globally repu­table organisations.

Nwosu was speaking against the background of the fact that organizations wish­ing to certify their BCMS will be externally audited against the requirements in ISO 22301.

He added: “Like many bright students, we are excit­ed and are highly motivated in attaining these highest stan­dards in the industry. Success is a function of persistence, doggedness and willingness to work hard for 20 minutes, to make sense of what many people would give up on after 30 seconds. We have become one of the organisations in Nigeria to be awarded ISO 22031 Societal Security – Business Continuity Manage­ment Systems Certification, based on international good practice, to manage business continuity. ISO 22301 speci­fies requirements to plan, es­tablish, implement, operate, monitor, review, maintain and continually improve a docu­mented management system to prepare for, respond to and recover from disruptive events when they arise.”

What is ISO 22031?

Also known as “Societal Security — Preparedness and Continuity Management Sys­tems — Requirements”, ISO 22031 is the International Standard for Business Conti­nuity Management Systems. It defines the strategic and tactical capability of an organ­isation to plan for and respond to incidents and business dis­ruptions in order to continue business operations at an ac­ceptable pre-defined level.

Why should quoted coys root for BCMS?

It is an incontrovertible fact that most organisations will, at some point, be faced with having to respond to an incident which may disrupt or threaten the day-to-day operations of their business. A successful Business Con­tinuity Management (BCM) programme, established to respond to any potential dis­ruption, is essential for all organisations. Ensuring a ho­listic BCMS is in place will not only help the organisation recover from disasters, it will also prevent the reputational damage that can arise from any operational outages, missed deadlines, upset cus­tomers, or direct financial loss. Business Continuity Management involves the recovery or continuation of business activities in the event of any business disruption. The overall BCM programme is expected to be managed through activities such as determining the scope, risk evaluation, business continu­ity strategy, business continu­ity objectives, development planning, training, exercises, testing, reviewing and con­tinual development.

Even if an organisation has never experienced a seri­ous incident, establishing a BCMS, built on ISO 22301, helps to define key business processes and the disruption that could result from any threats.

According to Mrs Adedo­yin Odunfa, the Managing Director of Digital Jewels, “the ISO 22301 is suitable for use in businesses of all sizes across all sectors, as it will help protect the organization against the threats specific to its business. These could include natural disaster, in­formation technology failure, staff illness, terrorist threat or a disruption in supply chain. ISO 22301 will provide you with a framework for assess­ing critical suppliers and their associated risks, assessing current business practices and planning contingency mea­sures. When incidents hap­pen, the organization will be prepared and able to respond effectively. It will also be able to reduce downtime having identified alternative arrange­ments. With ISO 22301, orga­nizations will not only signifi­cantly help reduce the risks to their businesses, but will also help will help achieve opera­tional resilience.”

Speaking on what the award will do for his bank, Nwosu summed it up like this: “The ISO 22301 stan­dardisation certification will help improve our business by ensuring planned, effective business continuity manage­ment at all levels, including organization-wide identifi­cation and understanding of critical business processes and the impact of disruption, timely and orderly responses to incidents/business disrup­tions”.

What is next for the bank after clinching the award? Nwosu seemed to be telling other quoted companies to take a cue when he said: “I wish to state the board and management’s continued commitment to business con­tinuity across the bank.”

Other benefits of attaining this certification include the following:

It gives the certified an ad­vantage over the less resilient competitors; improved risk profile in the minds of insur­ers, resulting in reduced insur­ance premiums, Increase the survival chance of both the organization and employees and helps organization com­municate positive message to the media and stakeholders in crisis conditions.

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