Accra, Nov. 3, GNA – The 2026 Boardroom Governance Summit will be held on Thursday, November 12, at the Labadi Beach Hotel in Accra to examine how effective board committees can strengthen corporate oversight, decision-making and accountability.
The summit is being convened by social entrepreneur and researcher, Professor Douglas Boateng, and strategic leadership development firm, PanAvest International.
It will be held under the theme: “Board Committees: From Oversight to Impact. The Conversations Every Board Must Have.”
The summit will devote a full day to examining the structures through which much of a board’s work is carried out, with emphasis on how effective committees can contribute to corporate success and help prevent institutional failure.
A release shared with the Ghana News Agency said the summit had, within three years, become one of the largest boardroom-focused gatherings on the continent, attracting an average of 1,000 executives, board chairpersons and policymakers annually.
Speakers include Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah Presidential Special Envoy on Reparation Diaspora Relations; Dr Julius Debrah – Chief of Staff, Presidency of Ghana; Chief Alhassan Andani – Board Chair, Ecobank PLC; Mrs Efua Ghartey – President, Ghana Bar Association; Mr Felix E. Addo, Board Chairman of Guinness Ghana Breweries PLC; and Otunba Adetunji, President and Chairman of the Chartered Institute of Directors (CIoD), Nigeria.
Other corporate and public-sector leaders are also expected to speak.
The organisers said board committees played a critical role in determining the effectiveness of corporate governance.
They said audit committees were central to detecting financial irregularities, while risk committees helped boards anticipate and respond to threats.
Nomination and remuneration committees, they said, also played important roles in succession planning, leadership selection and executive remuneration.
“Despite this, committees remain among the least examined parts of boardroom governance,” the organisers said.
They noted that effective committees enabled boards to make informed decisions and hold management accountable, while weak or ceremonial committees could create gaps in oversight.
Prof Boateng said committees must be assessed by their impact because they were central to effective governance.
“The full board sets direction, but it is the committees that do the detailed work that makes good decisions possible,” he said.
The effectiveness of committees should not be measured by the number of meetings held or reports submitted, but by their ability to help boards anticipate risks, challenge assumptions and create lasting value, he noted.
“Too many organisations discover the weakness of their committees only after a crisis. This summit is about having those conversations before the crisis arrives,” he added.
The sessions will examine the quality of engagement between committees, the full board and management, as well as independent challenge and the courage to ask difficult questions.
Other areas will include succession and leadership, the role of nomination and remuneration committees, environmental, social and governance (ESG) oversight, sustainability and how committees can keep boards alert to emerging opportunities and threats.
Prof Boateng’s new book, Practical Perspectives on the Committees of the Board, will also be launched at the summit.
The book examines board committees from an African and developing-world perspective.
The summit is targeted at committee chairs and members, board chairpersons, directors and chief executives, company secretaries, governance professionals, investors, regulators and leaders of state-owned enterprises.
Other speakers are: Mr Kalmoni Salah – CEO, Japan Motors; Dr Patrick Kwaku Ofori – CEO, CBOD; Mr Michael Wei Ye – Managing Director, Sunda International Ghana Ltd; Mr David Eduaful – Managing Director, Labadi Beach Hotel; Dr Alfred Mahamadu Braimah – Board Chairman, Benso Oil Palm Plantation PLC; Mr Joe Jackson – CEO, Dalex Finance & Leasing Company Limited; Mark Pritchard – Chairman & Pan-African Trade Lead, African Supply Chain Confederation; Ms Sena Dake – Independent Non-Executive Director, Republic Bank (Ghana) PLC.
Participation is eligible for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) credits for members of partner professional bodies, including the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana (ICAG), Ghana Bar Association (GBA), Ghana Institution of Engineering (GhIE), Ghana Institution of Surveyors (GhIS), Ghana Institute of Procurement and Supply (GIPS) and Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT).
GNA
Edited by Beatrice Asamani Savage