History

ACGN meeting and AGM was held on 26 September 2018 and was attended by 16 delegates with an additional 3 proxies received.  Meshack Joram, CEO of the IOD Kenya, was elected as Chairman of the ACGN with Angela Cherrington, CEO of the IOD Southern Africa, elected as Deputy Chairman.  IOD’s from Mozambique; Senegal; South Africa; and Uganda were elected/re-elected as Exco Members.  A valuable sharing and collaboration session was held amongst members sharing best practices, developments and challenges in their countries. A joint HED / ACGN Conference on “Corporate Governance as a Tool to support Access to Finance” was held on 25 September 2018.  The conference format allowed for key note addresses from ACGN and IFC and panel discussions on related thematic topics.  Key conference sponsorship were received from diverse sector entities with a vested interest in promoting good corporate governance. A capacity building workshop on “Women on Boards and in Business Leadership” was held on 27 September 2018 supported by the IFC demonstrating their toolkit, to discuss added value to IOD’s in terms of their own Boards and further promoting Women on Boards in their own countries potentially enhancing IOD revenue streams.  IODs and other IFC partners are encouraged to organize TOT sessions to equip pools of trainers to use the modules.

ACGN meeting was held on 7 March 2018 and was attended by 15 delegates and included FITC Nigeria, IFC, The Ethics Institute, UNECA and NBIM. A joint ACGN and NICG Conference was hosted on 8 March 2018 on the topic of Governance as a Driver of Sustainable Economic Development.  With NICG being a relatively ‘young’ institute, the Conference will provide an opportunity to invite both members (and potential members) and Senior Executives of NICG, members of the development finance community, donors, regulators as well as the public sector and was attended by approximately 120 delegates. A capacity building workshop sponsored by the IFC was held on 9 March 2018 around corporate governance and SOE’s.

ACGN meeting and AGM was held on 10 August 2017 and was attended by 20 delegates and included FITC Nigeria, IFC, The Ethics Institute and CIPE participants. A joint ACGN and EICG Conference was hosted on 9 August 2017. With EICG being a relatively ‘young’ institute, the Conference provided an opportunity to invite both members (and potential members) and Senior Executives of EICG, members of the development finance community, donors as well as the public sector and was attended by approximately 120 delegates. Support of the ACGN allowed for the ACGN and EICG to jointly meet with stakeholders and assisted in boosting the visibility and legitimacy of the institute in the country and relevance/importance of corporate governance and ethics in business in the country. IOD Centre for Corporate Governance in Nigeria (IODCCG) were officially welcomed as ACGN affiliate member at a signing ceremony. A capacity building workshop was held on 11 August 2017, as supported by IFC, with the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) with regard to potential areas of collaboration and strengthening the advocacy role of ACGN members under the APRM corporate governance pillar.

ACGN meeting was held on 22 February 2017 and was attended by 20 delegates and included FITC Nigeria and IFC participants. A joint ACGN and INAD-CI Business Forum was hosted on 23 February 2017. This was the first ACGN meeting hosted in a West Africa French speaking country.  With INAD-CI being a relatively ‘young’ institute, the Business Forum provided an opportunity to invite both members (and potential members) and Senior Executives of INAD-CI, members of the development finance community, donors, regulators as well as the public sector.  The Business Forum was supported by IFC who also launched their West Africa corporate governance program together with other corporates as sponsors.  The Business Forum was attended by approximately 300 delegates who passed through the event during the course of the day. Support of the ACGN allowed for the ACGN and INAD-CI to jointly meet with stakeholders and assisted in boosting the visibility and legitimacy of the institute in the country and region. IOD Senegal and IOD Namibia officially welcomed as ACGN members at a signing ceremony. A capacity building workshop was held on 24 Feb 2017, supported by IFC, on lessons learnt from the implementation and development of the King IV Code of Corporate Governance.

A half day capacity building workshop on Media and Communications, based on the IFC toolkit was held on the final day, and facilitated by an IFC accredited trainer. Highlights of the meeting included:

• Official signing ceremony for IOD’s of Algeria, Namibia and Egypt as new ACGN members.

• Participation of Ms. Anna Kompanek (Director for Multiregional Programs) of the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) in Washington and her colleague.  CIPE presented their joint Integrity Pledge project with the Mauritius IOD and showed an interest in supporting the ACGN ‘Facilitation Fees’ project.  CIPE support a number of global initiatives to strengthen corporate governance.
• Attendance by Mr Ezzeddine Larbi of AfDB who provided input and brief introduction of the African Development Bank’ss focus on Governance.
• Business lunch with IOD Tunisia board members
• Approval of amendments to the ACGN Constitution.
• Media coverage by various local representatives.

Business Forum, Launch of ACGN/EY Report on the “State of Corporate Governance in 13 African Countries”, Strategy session, 2nd Chairman and Deputy Chairman elected Business Forum Programme: Introduction to the African Corporate Governance Network (ACGN) Mr. Said Kambi, Chairman, ACGN Importance of Corporate Governance and challenges in the African context Baroness Lynda Chalker (ACGN Ambassador) Ethics in Business Professor Deon Rossouw, EthicsSA ACGN EY Research Report on the state of corporate governance in 13 African countries Joanne Henstock, Executive Director, EY Corporate Governance challenges facing Mozambique Dr L Magaço, Director, Instituto de Directores de Moçambique Promoting greater corporate governance in Africa through ethical leadership Mr Fred Swaniker, Founder & Executive Chairman, African Leadership Academy ACCA commitment and support to promoting Corporate Governance Ms Madhavi Ramdin, Head of ACCA Mauritius, ACCA

African Securities Exchange Association (ASEA) as Member with MOU, Sub-committee meetings ACGN participation at Quarterly IOD Nigeria Business Forum where Professor Deon Rossouw provided a key note address on Ethics in Business Capacity Building workshop on Board Evaluations

The second Executive Committee meeting of the ACGN was held on 24 February 2014 in Nairobi, Kenya at which a signing ceremony was held to welcome the Institute of Directors Nigeria as member and FITC Nigeria as affiliate member. Current members include Institute of Directors Kenya, Institute of Directors in Malawi, Mauritius Institute of Directors, Institut Marocain des Administrateurs, Institute of Directors in Southern Africa, Institute of Directors of Zambia, Tanzania Institute of Directors, Institute of Corporate Governance of Uganda, Institute of Directors Zimbabwe and Institute of Directors Mozambique.

Discussion points at the meeting in Nairobi centered on the formulation and implementation of business plans to address the focus areas of the ACGN – capacity building, knowledge sharing, training and development, advocacy and research. ACGN Sub-committees were able to define their terms of reference and formulate an action plan of projects. Consultation and engagement with stakeholders were also on the agenda whereby the ACGN identified and mapped out relevant stakeholders.

Observers who attended and addressed the meeting included representatives from Webber Wentzel, EY, International Finance Corporation and Mott MacDonald.

The meeting in Nairobi follows the launch of the ACGN in Mauritius in October 2013.

On 16 October 2013, the African Corporate Governance Network (ACGN) was officially launched in Mauritius at a press-covered event which marked the signing ceremony of the ACGN Constitution by all Founding Members and the NBF and was preceded by the first ACGN Executive Committee meeting. The Founding Members of the ACGN, who officially signed the ACGN Constitution, which will bind them to work together to promote good corporate governance in Africa, are:

• Institute of Directors Kenya
• Institute of Directors Malawi
• Mauritius Institute of Directors
• Institut Marocain des Administrateurs
• Institute of Directors Mozambique
• Institute of Directors in Southern Africa
• Institute of Directors Tanzania
• Institute of Corporate Governance of Uganda
• Institute of Directors Zambia
• Institute of Directors Zimbabwe

In addition, two other Directors Institutes, namely Institute of Directors in Nigeria and Senegal, have already indicated their interest in joining the ACGN as members, along with the FITC Nigeria joining the ACGN as an affiliate member.

At the official launch and first Executive Committee meeting of the ACGN, the Constitution was formally signed and adopted by all Founding Members and three Sub-committees were identified and formed to address the focus areas of the ACGN. The ACGN also elected Mrs Jane Valls, CEO of the MIOD, and Mr Said Kambi, CEO of the Institute of Directors Tanzania, as its first Chairman and Deputy Chairman. This meeting and launch was sponsored by IFC.

Delegates for the second ACGN meeting were from Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

The meeting of the African Governance Network (ACGN) was hosted by the Institute of Directors Zimbabwe (IoDZ) and the second this year, designed to scale-up and roll out good corporate governance on the continent.

At the meeting held in Harare, the Mission, Vision, Values and Objectives were approved, together with the ACGN logo. A Constitution and an Operating Plan were tabled for discussion and the Action Plan was updated. A SWOT analysis was also undertaken and key focus areas were identified and agreed upon.

This meeting was sponsored by ACCA and other collaborators present included the NBF, IFC and Ernst & Young.

The Institute of Directors in Southern Africa (IoDSA) and the Mauritius Institute of Directors convened a collaborative network of private sector membership organisations to tackle issues of corporate governance in Africa, supported by the NEPAD Business Foundation. The network aims to provide a platform for institutions with common goals of developing and implementing initiatives responding to the unique corporate governance challenges. The inaugural meeting took place on 24-25 January in Johannesburg, and was sponsored by Standard Bank.

The impetus behind the formation of this network is the link between strong corporate governance, investment and business growth. The countries involved in the network currently include: South Africa, Mauritius, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia.

The ACGN is creating a network of organisations whose combined efforts and programmes will accelerate the creation of a climate of progressive Corporate Governance in Africa. The ACGN believes this will enable greater levels of investment in environments which are of lower risk.