Second Deputy Governor of Bank of Ghana, Elsie Addo Awadzi, has noted that good corporate governance is crucial in achieving economic survival and growth.
She disclosed that strong governance in all of corporate Ghana, and indeed the public sector, is necessary for promoting desired socio-economic transformation for Ghana – entreating all and sundry to promote best practices in corporate governance nationwide.
“In these challenging and uncertain times, the quality of leadership and governance is key to shaping new visions and ways of doing business that will stand the test of time. The ability of business to recover fully from the pandemic and engage competitively in the new normal will hinge strongly on good corporate governance.
“Good corporate governance will ensure businesses are run and governed in a manner that harnesses the scarce resources available to create lasting value for all their stakeholders on a sustainable basis. In the new normal, good corporate governance will be even more of a critical element for institutional survival, resilience, and sustainability,” she said.
She was speaking as the guest of honour for a virtual launch of the 4th Institute of Directors-Ghana (IoD), 2021 Corporate Governance Excellence Awards, dubbed ‘Good Corporate Governance, effective and ethical leadership: an essential requirement for organisational turnaround’.
She laid emphasis on effective risk governance, sustainable and socio-development goals, board effectiveness, internal controls, and incentive structures which support prudent management as corporate governance standards continue to evolve all around the world.
She lauded the IoD-Ghana – in particular the Corporate Governance Excellence Awards, noting that they will go a long way to help entrench the culture of good corporate governance in the nation.
President of IoD, Rockson Dogbegah took members through the code of best practices and frameworks that institutions require to stay firm on solid ground when it comes to good corporate governance.
He said, organisations must go beyond looking at profit and have some focus on making sure they have strategies which take account of their environment, being responsible citizens as far as their activities are concerned; so that whatever way they create value will have a positive impact to the benefit of stakeholders.
“I am very hopeful that while we all work on sustaining this initiative we will have an environment that is enhanced and which leads to good outcomes. The outcome of good corporate governance will lead to ethical and effective leadership. And ethical leadership is about being responsible, accountable, fair, transparent and adopting the prudent strategies which lead to achieving organisational objectives,” he asserted.
Chief Executive Officer of IoD-Ghana, Fred Aryeetey, said the award scheme has started receiving nominations from members and non-members and will be closing by September 17, 2021.
The selection criteria include strong financial performance of institutions, tax compliance and other compliances, ethical culture, effective controls, effectiveness of board of directors among others; with the overall criteria being that awardees have excelled in good corporate governance practices in Ghana and have made tangible contributions to the governance of their respective organisations.
