Lagos: The Nigerian Institute of Management (Chartered) has called on professional managers to adopt interdisciplinary and cross-sector collaboration as essential mechanisms for driving innovation and national development. This announcement was made during the institute’s 2026 membership induction and upgrading ceremony, held in Lagos, where over 700 individuals joined the ranks of graduate, associate, and full membership.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, the event, themed ‘Building Bridges Across Sectors: The Power of Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Professional Management,’ featured a keynote address by Mrs. Olubukola Ige, Team Lead, Operations at WC Digital Academy. Ige highlighted the increasing importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in addressing complex socio-economic challenges. She emphasized that modern management practices require professionals to transcend traditional silos and adopt more integrated approaches.
Ige identified three collaboration models-multidisciplinary, interdiscip
linary, and transdisciplinary-that demonstrate varying levels of integration across sectors. She stated that effective collaboration fosters innovation, enhances decision-making, strengthens institutional performance, and builds public trust. However, she pointed out barriers such as sectoral silos, regulatory bottlenecks, resource constraints, and a lack of shared professional language that hinder collaboration.
To overcome these challenges, Ige recommended adopting shared performance frameworks, initiating cross-sector training, and fostering strong public-private partnerships supported by development finance institutions. She encouraged the newly inducted members to leverage their professional networks to drive collaboration across industries, academia, government, and civil society, urging them to use their membership as a platform for building connections and driving impact while mentoring future professionals.
The institute’s President, retired Commodore Abimbola Ayuba, also addressed the new members,
emphasizing the importance of upholding ethics, professionalism, and national interest. Ayuba described membership as a call to service and a commitment to both profession and nation. He urged certified professional managers to maintain high standards of competence and integrity, prioritizing corporate and collective goals over personal interests.
Ayuba reminded members that complex situations in their professional duties would require difficult choices, and he advised them to let ethical principles and professional standards guide their decisions. He reiterated the NIM code of conduct, which enjoins members to prioritize service above self and uphold values such as selflessness, fairness, efficiency, accountability, transparency, probity, and integrity.