Ghana has submitted itself to a year-long peer review on corporate governance to streamline the activities of the Government and businesses to serve as catalysts for the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement. 

The targeted review, which is in line with the African Union (AU) principles and guidelines on corporate governance, is to help address the development and empowerment of the dominant sectors of the private sector. 

The private sector players that the corporate governance practice will be beneficial to, include Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs), informal sector and family-owned businesses as well as multinationals and listed and unlisted firms. 

A review team, led by Abdoulie Janneh, African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) Eminent Person responsible for Ghana, will be in the country from March 14 to March 27 for the review process with various stakeholders. 

Thereafter, a report will be tabled at the AU forum, where it would be peer-reviewed before its launch, as well as the dissemination and implementation of the outcome of the report. 

The announcement of the review process was done at an editors’ forum with editors of various media organisations in Accra, organised by the National African Peer Review Mechanism (NAPRM).  

Laud Mansfield Baddoo, Eminent Person, at NAPRM Governing Council, said the review would help equip Ghanaian firms to improve their operations and access investments both locally and foreign to harness the opportunities at AfCFTA. 

He added that effective corporate governance was a vital tool to enable the private sector to develop and grow, and urged all organisations, irrespective of their size and operations to adhere to accepted standards. 

Madam Winnifred Akoto-Sampong, Acting Executive Secretary of National African NAPRM-GC, said the report had shown that Ghanaian private sector businesses were not taking advantage of trading opportunities of AfCFTA. 

“We have a $1.3 billion market, so we want to understand and address the issues so we can sustain ourselves as a continent without running to others,” Mad Akoto-Sampong, added. 

Gifty Afenyi Dadzie, who represented the Chairman of the Governing Council, NAPRM-GC, said the review was strategic and unique because it was tied to AfCFTA implementation. 

She said: “It is the first of its kind and would result in Ghana setting another enviable record of being the first to be peer-reviewed under AfCFTA, after setting a similar record as the first nation to be peer-reviewed on all four APRM pillars in 2006.” 

She added that: “Our focus, therefore, is on how Ghana should accelerate its preparedness to take full advantage of AfCFTA for sustainable economic growth and development.”