Communique Issued – Launch of Directors Week Celebration in Africa

1. BACKGROUND  

The institution of the Directors’ Week in Africa celebration is in furtherance of operationalizing the objectives of the African Corporate Governance Network (ACGN). 

The ACGN is a collaborative network of director membership organizations that was  formed in 2013 to promote effective corporate governance on the African continent.  The Network currently has nineteen (19) member countries and nine (9) affiliate  members representing over twenty thousand five hundred (20,500) senior executives  and directors across the continent.  

It is in this spirit that the Chairs’ Forum of the Africa Corporate Governance Network,  seeks to institutionalize the celebration of the Directors’ Week in Africa to: 

1. Stimulate the culture of good corporate governance and leadership in Africa. 2. Discuss corporate governance issues and implications on strategic projects in  Africa.  

3. Discuss and develop strategic interventions for corporate governance failures. 4. Enhance capacity of directors and networking with global and continental  stakeholders in the governance and leadership landscape. 

5. Stimulate sustained interest and attention of political leadership in corporate  governance on the continent and promote interaction and strategic  relationships.  

6. Recognize and celebrate promoters/achievers of good corporate governance  outcomes. 

1.1 Nuggets from the launch of the Directors’ Week Celebration on the 30^th November,  2021 are as follows:  

1. Everything rises and falls on leadership. Africa is hungry for ethical, effective  and professional leadership. Issues of ethics, diversity and sustainability must have our serious attention on the African continent. Promotion of good  governance in our countries is key to accelerated development in Africa. Noting  that good corporate governance determines sustainability and levels of  employment. 

2. Leadership is facing survival challenges in the midst of COVID-19 and hence the  need for enhanced ethical and effective leadership at all fronts including  political and corporate governance. Africa needs to put its house in order. 

3. Twenty-one (21) countries in Africa have an established and documented corporate governance framework, out of the fifty- four (54) countries on the  continent.  

4. There is the urgent need to entrench corporate governance principles in the  world. Africa must take a leading role. 

5. There is the critical need for enhanced sustainable implementation culture on  the African continent for accelerated development. 

6. Significant progress is being made under the Africa Continental Free Trade Area  (AfCFTA) initiative. 

7. Good corporate governance promotes viability, safeguards against corruption,  and supports the effective utilization of resources and development of  sustainable capital markets. Corporate governance institutions must support the  implementation of the AfCFTA projects. 

8. Directors have to learn and understand the needs and expectations of stakeholders and make long term decisions in the interest of all stakeholders. 

9. Leaders require intellectual capacity, transparency, accountability, fairness and  integrity and must provide effective leadership.  

10. Leaders must see to it that board and management are aligned to the  organizational values and objectives, ensuring that key performance indicators  are met by making certain that all internal stakeholders are singing from the 

same hymn book to ensure sustained alignment to achieve the organizational  objectives.  

11. Reporting must be outcomes based.  

12.The maiden edition of the Africa Directors’ Week Celebration will be held in  November, 2022. 

13. All stakeholders are to support in the area of marketing, collaboration and  sponsorship of the maiden edition of the event.  

To promote good corporate governance at the various country levels, the  following observations and recommendations were made as outcomes from  previous stakeholder engagements;  

1. Political leadership and stakeholder institutions in most African countries are  not utilizing the membership of corporate governance professional institutions  strategically. It is recommended that stakeholders must patronize the services  of corporate governance institutions to enhance service delivery in their  countries whiles the various corporate governance institutions must create a  substantial budget for effective media and stakeholder engagements. 

2. Most State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) are under performing due to poor board  selection and recruitment strategies. Membership of boards are usually  politicized and used as compensation for political party faithfuls and for friends.  There is the need to move away from this practice.  

3. Governance institutions and stakeholders including the media must aggressively  advocate that only qualified directors are appointed onto boards to ensure  organizational objectives are achieved.  

4. Governance institutions must also ensure there is the availability of a pool of  trained directors to choose from for these board appointments.

5. Corporate governance institutions must develop a strategic working  relationship with the political leadership in their various countries to enhance  good corporate governance cultures.  

6. Ethical and effective leadership of boards of most companies on the continent  is not very strong. There is the need to promote ethical and effective leadership  through the introduction of enforceable National Codes of Ethics.  

7. There is insufficient appetite for local executive level board training. A  conscious effort is needed to stimulate patronage of such executive board level  training and attendance. 

8. There is no minimum standard for corporate governance training necessitating  the need to have a “Continental Framework for Good Corporate Governance  Training” and also guidelines to serve as a reference point for country specific  governance codes. As a continent, there’s also the need to have standardised  African board training manuals that are benchmarked to global standards to  ensure balance of knowledge and skill set across the continent.  

9. There are no established IoDs and corporate governance institutions in some  parts of the continent. This is a major challenge to our quest to have corporate  governance institutions replicated on the continent to support the local  economy and political governance.  

10.The need to establish continental recognition schemes to promote and deepen  good corporate governance outcomes cannot be overemphasized. 

11. There is not enough effort to monitor and celebrate the successes of corporate  organizations and individuals promoting and exhibiting good corporate  governance outcomes. In view of this, the ACGN Chairs’ Forum has adopted  an “Excellence Awards in Corporate Governance” scheme which will be  launched in February, 2022. 

12.There is the lack of appreciation of “directorship” as a profession. Deliberate  efforts must therefore be made by corporate governance institutions in Africa  to ensure this is adequately addressed.  

13.There is no “African Code of Corporate Governance Guidelines” at the  continental level. ACGN therefore applauds the African Peer Review  mechanism (APRM) for the initiative of developing a guideline which is  currently undergoing stakeholder consultations. It is recommended that  countries should adopt this for use as a basis for the development of country  specific governance codes.  

14.Where corporate governance codes exist, there are no guidelines on  enforcement as the codes are not supported by any legislation. Leadership of  governance institutions and stakeholders must promote the use of governance  codes and organize periodic annual review sessions of the codes for feedback  to create room for improvements. Further, they should push for upgrading of  codes into law. 

15.All stakeholders including corporate governance institutions in Africa are to  promote the integrated thinking and reporting culture on the Africa continent  through education, advocacy and the formation of committees to enhance  value creation and good governance outcomes. 

1.2 Highlights of the Achievements of the ACGN Chairs Forum  

Some achievements of the Chairs Forum reported on at the event are;  

1. A strategic plan has been developed and launched; a lot of funding support is  required to implement the strategies.  

2. A framework for the establishment of corporate governance institutions in  countries that do not have such has been developed and adopted. Discussions  are presently ongoing to establish a corporate governance institute in Liberia.

3. A recognition awards scheme has been developed and adopted for  implementation. This will be launched in February, 2022. The maiden edition  of the ACGN excellence awards will be held as part of the Directors’ week  celebration in Africa in November, 2022. 

4. A knowledge hub has been established to enhance research and knowledge  sharing and to enhance policy development and related issues. Three (3)  successful engagements have been held so far.  

5. The Chairs Forum has made major contributions to the review of the African  Corporate Governance Guidelines developed by the APRM. 

6. The Chairs Forum is currently developing a mentorship scheme for institutional  and individual mentoring on corporate governance on the continent.  

7. The Chairs Forum is also developing a framework to support director  placements and training across countries on the continent. 

2. ATTENDANCE TO THE LAUNCH  

A total of two hundred and seventy- four (274) registrations were recorded from  Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Namibia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Senegal,  South Africa, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States of  America, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Rwanda. 

Speakers at the Event were:  

• Prof. Mervyn King, Chair of the King Committee (King 1- King IV) – Special  Guest of Honour 

• Ms. Emily Mburu-Ndoria, Director of Trade in Services, Investment, Intellectual  Property Rights Digital Trade, representing the Secretary General of AfCFTA • Ms. Tumi Itumeleng Dlamini, Technical Advisor, APRM, AU 

• Dr. Chinyere Almona, Director-General/CEO, Lagos Chamber of Commerce  and Industry, Nigeria 

• Rockson Kwesi Dogbegah, Chair, ACGN Chairs Forum

Chairs from Africa’s corporate governance institutions who delivered solidarity  messages were; 

• Dr. Mike Eric Juru (President, IoD Zimbabwe) and Vice Chair, ACGN Chairs’  Forum 

• Jacky Muka, Vice Chair, IoD Kenya 

• Mr. Mamour FALL Permanent Secretary and founding Member Institut  Sènègalais des Administrateurs (ISA) – Senegal 

• Mr. Lejone Mpotjoane, Chairman, IoD Lesotho 

• Mr. Edward Kabwe, President, IoD Zambia 

• Mr. Dison Okumu, CEO, Institute of Corporate Governance, Uganda (ICGU)  for President, IoD-Uganda 

• Mr. Steve Galloway, President of the Namibia Corporate Governance Institute 

The Directors’ Week Celebration was launched by Professor Mervyn King who also  delivered the key note address on the theme: “The Need for Good Corporate  Governance and Leadership in Africa” and launched the institutionalization of the  celebration of the Directors’ Week on the Continent.  

The event was convened by Mr. Rockson K. Dogbegah, Chair of the ACGN Chairs’ Forum and President of IoD Ghana. The Moderator for the occasion was Ms. Susan  Mutangadura past President of IoD Zimbabwe. 

3. CONCLUSION  

The launch was very successful, the speeches were insightful and very educative, the  solidary messages were very inspiring, refreshing and very encouraging, demonstrating a high level of acceptance of the initiative and pledge of support.  

The maiden edition of the Directors’ Week in Africa event is scheduled to be held in  November, 2022. All Stakeholders were encouraged to promote the patronage of  the maiden event to ensure a successful Directors’ Week celebration in Africa