The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) has called on the private sector to maintain corporate governance to attractive investors into the country.
According to the association, most players in the private sector have lost an opportunity to partner with multinational companies due to bad business practices.
Speaking to Citi Business News at programme organized by the ACCA to promote corporate governance, the Head of the ACCA Mrs. Doris Yaa Aggrey Ahiati, stated that businesses in the private sector must take advantage of global trends by practicing good corporate governance.
“Investors who are looking at coming into the country require certain governance systems and framework to be in place before they will put in their money,” she said adding that “such governance practices are ignored by most businesses,” she said.
She bemoaned the situation where majority of companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, do not practice corporate governance.
“We have a few companies that can be singled out as having good, or fairly decent corporate governance regimes, but the majority of the companies; about 80 to 90 percent as you know, fall in the SME bracket and are typically those that are found wanting when you are assessing their corporate governance policies,” she stressed.
She pointed out that “we may have started as a single owner managed company, but it is important to entrench good corporate governance in order to create enduring businesses that can stand the test of time”.
Outlining some benefits of corporate governance, Mrs. Ahiati stated that practicing it could help small businesses access funds at relatively cheaper rates.
“In most cases, we need a compliance monitoring officer to ensure that that you are adhering to the corporate governance practices that you have,”she said.
She cited for example that having a board, which is an important requirement in corporate governance, is apt and could help check powers of Managing Directors.
“Good corporate governance is very important to accessing capital in the fact that whoever is going to provide that capital is interest in knowing how you running your organization,” she added.
Talking on the topic of corporate governance, Mr. Edward Effah, Founder and Board Chairman of Fidelity Bank, maintained that corporate governance is key for banks before funds are released.
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By: Lawrence Segbefia/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
