Stakeholders of the Institute of Directors (IoD), have made an impressive input which demonstrates their burning desire towards the development of a national corporate governance code.
According to them, the initiative will cover all relevant sectors in the country, pushing for the promotion of good corporate governance to ensure the effective use of resources.
An initiative of the IoD-Ghana, the national corporate governance code further seeks to serve as a guide to the country’s corporate institutions. It was launched by the Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Elsie Addo Awadzi, in a virtual meeting.
Institutions including State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA), Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), Private Enterprises Federation (PEF), Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Ghana Association of Integrated Thinking Reporting (GAITR), Institute of Chartered Accountants Ghana (ICAG), the Ghana Bar Association and others, spelt out some processes which will lead to the successful development of a national code in their commitment and solidarity messages.
Key among them is the need to have the inclusiveness, thus embrace all stakeholders as much as possible, seek guidance by country context and value, the need to harmonize is very critical, international best practices must be drawn on, approach the process in a manner devoid of politics and above all, its implementation and compliance framework.
Second Deputy Governor of Bank of Ghana, Elsie Addo Awadzi congratulated IoD-Ghana for the timely initiative and for its commitment to nation-building through promoting high standards of corporate governance practices in the country.
She noted the project is a call to national development, making the case and recognizing that the need for a national corporate governance code is crucial, adding that strong corporate governance in all sectors is key to sustainable development
“National Code unite us as a people and harmonize our values and therefore, strong stakeholders inclusiveness is very critical “. Second Deputy Governor of Bank of Ghana said.
President of IoD-Ghana, Rockson Kwesi Dogbegah indicated that Africa lags behind in terms of the total number of countries that have a national corporate governance code. “A research conducted by the African peer review mechanism indicates that only 19 out of the 55 countries in Africa have a national code. It has been observed that even in the countries that have a national level corporate governance codes, the provisions are divorced from the realities of African social culture and business context”.
President of IoD-Ghana said, there is therefore the compelling need to prioritize the development of context-specific corporate governance code that meet the needs of African businesses and people, a focus of the African Corporate governance network.
It is against this backdrop that efforts were made to develop a national corporate governance code for Ghana. The code when developers, he further stated, will provide the ease of compliance, provide clarity, will boost investor and business confidence, harmony and synergies and enhance global appeal as a country, amongst others.
“The proposed corporate governance code will be the first unified national code in the history of Ghana and is intended to complement the sector, specific codes in the country. It is our hope that this exercise will become an all-inclusive national endeavour, involving every possible stakeholder”. Mr Dogbega said.
Stakeholders also benefited from very rich experiences from sister countries like Zimbabwe and Lesotho with regards to the development of a national corporate governance code.
