CIPM to clamp down on unlicensed practitioners, 9,759 inactive members

the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM) honouring some members. Photo- brandcrunch

CHARTERED Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM) of Nigeria has expressed plans to clamp down on unlicensed practitioners as well as deregister inactive members on her list.

The move was in response to concerns by fellows and members of the institution on growing activities of quacks and impostors in the Human Resource (HR) profession.

The leading practitioners appealed to the new leadership of the Institute to further enforce it’s licensing policy and improve active membership to help separate the wheat from the chaff.

In a related development, the institute has elected new crop of executive members to pilot her affairs for the next two years. The new leadership is led by Victor Arabome, President and Chairman of Council; Udom Inoyo as Vice President.

Stakeholders, who met at the 46th annual general meeting of the institute and elections of new executives, commended the institute for improving membership to a total of 12,550 as at April 2015. They were, however, worried that only 2,791 were active (have paid dues up to 2014), while 9,759 are inactive.

Prince Haastrup, Andy Irabor, Ituoma Nwachu and Femi Mokikan among others who spoke, said the issue of active membership and licensing deserves priority in the face of growing threats from quacks and impostors.

Registrar CIPM, Sunday Adeyemi noted that a total of 4509 members paid subscriptions in 2014 as against 3897 in 2013.

Adeyemi said it is now imperative that all members fulfill their annual financial obligations to the Institute to avoid removal of their names from the Institute’s register in accordance with CIPM’s Official Gazette Decree No 58 of November 23, 1992, outlined in pages A504, Part 3, Section 5 (d) to 7.

In response to concerns raised, the Registrar said there were some members that have not contributed to the Institute in the last 10 years, adding that it was high time to enforce the rules.

According to him, “We will be getting our powers from the Governing Council to deregister inactive members of the Institute. Enough is enough,” he said.

Outgoing President of the Institute, Victor Famuyibo, noted that during 2014, the Governing Council took a bold step to further professionalize the practice of Human Resource Management in Nigeria, to the exclusion of quacks and impostors.

“Accordingly, we implemented the official launch of the Human Resource Practitioners License (HRPL) at the 46th Annual National Conference in October 2014. At the close of year, a total of 461 eligible members had processed and obtained their Practitioners’ License.

“We rose quickly to the challenge posed by Impostors aiming to register low quality competing Institute that potentially would encroach on the space that legitimately belongs to us exclusively. We wasted no time in raising a legal team, followed up with a strong challenge during the reading of the ‘member-sponsored Bill’ at the National Assembly and succeeded in stalling further consideration of the ‘illegality’ that had reared its head from a group of quacks and Impostors,” he said.