Accra, March 26, GNA – The Africa Corporate Governance Network (ACGN) and the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) have signed a Memorandum of understanding (MoU) to promote good corporate governance practices in Africa.
Among other pragmatic areas of cooperation, the Parties – ACGN and APRM – will collaborate on initiatives to promote corporate governance standards and initiatives in Africa through the sharing of ideas and best practices on corporate governance.
As part of the areas of the corporation, and when parties agreed, they would co-host workshops and capacity building initiatives in member states to, among other things, co-produce knowledge products to advance the subject of corporate governance in Africa.
In implementing the MoU, the ACGN and the APRM will conduct cooperation activities through modalities that will enable optimal delivery of technical and advisory support, joint production of reports and studies, programme implementation relating to the achievement of the Parties’ respective core mandates, including the studies on principles and standards of corporate governance, among others.
Mr. Rockson Kwesi Dogbegah, Chair, ACGN Board of Directors, addressing a forum before the signing, said the contributions of APRM in the promotion of good governance in Africa, including the development of the African Principles and Guidelines on Corporate Governance under the auspices of the Africa Union (AU) were highly commendable.
The sensitisation forum on the “African Principles and Guidelines on Corporate Governance – Building a Framework for Competitiveness and Growth for the Private Sector in Ghana” was organised by the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM).
Mr Dogbegah said, as part of its mandate, the ACGN developed the capacity of its members and other stakeholders towards enhanced and more effective Corporate Governance practices aimed at building better private and public sector organisations in Africa in furtherance of its vision.
He said experience in developed market economies indicated that good governance was anchored on the availability and application of the appropriate legal framework, national codes and its strict enforcement coupled with the appropriate behavioural and cultural considerations that promoted sustainable socio-economic development.
Those fundamentals, he explained, were owned and acceptable by all players in the private and public sector, which created the enabling environment for growth and development.
The Chair of ACGN said there was now increasing momentum locally and internationally towards implementing more laws and government regulations that imposed obligations on companies, their directors, and officers, to adopt, implement and comply with good corporate governance principles.
He noted that there was global consensus that implementation of the highest standards of corporate governance was crucial and critical to the economic growth, sustainable development, and social transformation of the continent.
Accordingly, Mr Dogbegah said, ACGN as part of its strategic interventions was embarking on several initiatives, including the establishment of corporate governance institutions in the rest of the continent where such were nonexistence with some serious work already ongoing in Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and the Gambia.
He mentioned the promotion of director development and cross exchange programmes to ensure adequate supply of independent directors on the continent for deployment and standardising corporate governance training across Africa as some key strategic interventions being undertaken.
Professor Edward Maloka, Chief Executive Officer, APRM Continental Secretariat, said the APRM as part of its mandate, encouraged participating States to ensure that their policies and practices conformed to the agreed political, economic and corporate governance values, codes and standards, and achieved mutually agreed objectives in socio-economic development contained in the Declaration on Democracy, Political, Economic and Corporate Governance.
He said APRM was committed to the highest standards of good political, economic, and corporate governance, international security, democracy, human rights, gender equality, and the rule of law for broad-based, inclusive, and sustainable socio-economic development for Africa’s transformation and economic integration and the attainment of APRM objectives.
Prof. Maloka said “good Corporate Governance is good for Africa and is not imperialist” as many would perceive it, adding that the practice of good corporate governance was universal.
He noted that since its establishment in 2003, the APRM had conducted 25 reviews among 42 of its member States with Ghana being the first, adding that with the adoption of the Principles and Guidelines on Good Corporate Governance, it would accelerate economic development in Africa.
The ACGN and the APRM committed to foster the adoption of policies, standards and practices leading to political stability, high economic growth, sustainable development and accelerated regional and continental economic integration, and building on their shared vision as African-owned and African-led institutional drivers for Africa’s transformation.
GNA