IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, Ghana’s global professional accounting body, are promoting growth of sustainable businesses through good corporate governance practices.

The adoption of improved practices helps strengthen private sector and growth in Ghana’s economy.

IFC and ACCA have been working together since 2014 to improve business performance in Ghana. As part of planned activities, both institutions hosted about 100 stakeholders, including regulators, policymakers, accounting professionals and business leaders to the second Corporate Governance Dialogues conference this week.

Norman Williams, ACCA Portfolio Head, East and West Africa, said: “ACCA remains committed to helping businesses improve performance through good corporate governance practices that will boost their capacity to attract more capital and increase their profitability. Together with IFC, we are facilitating the adoption of these practices that will help grow businesses and the economy”.

Chinyere Almona, IFC Head of Africa Corporate Governance Advisory Program, said, “IFC has learned from its global experience that good corporate governance helps companies operate more efficiently, gain access to capital, mitigate risk, and safeguard against mismanagement. This conference jointly organized with ACCA has helped IFC reinforce its commitment to support economic growth by sensitizing Ghanaian companies to build and strengthen sustainable operations through good corporate governance practices.

IFC Africa’s Corporate Governance program aims to improve the performance of businesses by helping them adopt good corporate governance practices and standards that are adapted to regional priorities.

The conference was facilitated by Sunita Kikeri, Program Manager for Corporate Governance in the Finance and Markets Global Practice of the World Bank, Andrew Akoto, Partner at KPMG, and Kofi Abotsi, Legal Practitioner, Dean, GIMPA School of Law. Participants discussed ways businesses can enhance transparency and accountability in corporate governance and how they can strengthen the legal and regulatory framework of Corporate Governance in Ghana.

The IFC Africa Corporate Governance program is funded by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), Switzerland.

SECO is Switzerland’s competence center for all core issues relating to economic policy. SECO’s economic development cooperation strives to achieve sustainable growth. Such growth is sustainable if it creates jobs, helps to increase productivity, to reduce poverty, inequalities and global risks.

IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. Working with more than 2,000 businesses worldwide, we use our capital, expertise, and influence, to create opportunity where it’s needed most. In FY15, our long-term investments in developing countries rose to nearly $18 billion, helping the private sector play an essential role in the global effort to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity.