Elsie Addo Awadzi is the Second Deputy Governor of Bank of Ghana
The second deputy governor of the Bank of Ghana, Elsie Addo Awadzi, has underscored the need for good corporate governance standards to strictly be adhered to in order to avert a collapse of corporate entities.
Mrs Awadzi believes that poor corporate governance still remains the core root of many corporate failures of businesses and institutions whereas good corporate governance remains the bedrock of any market economy.
Giving remarks at the virtual media lunch of the fourth edition of the Institute of Directors-Ghana (IoD-Gh) Corporate Governance Excellence Awards, the deputy BoG Governor charged indigenous businesses across sectors of the economy to strictly abide by good corporate governance standards.
“Rebuilding our economy post-pandemic will therefore require a new emphasis on strengthening governance and sound management of corporate Ghana and public sector institutions to deliver the desired outcomes for all stakeholder groups. Good corporate governance is indeed the bedrock of any modern market economy,” the deputy governor said.
“Surely, in these challenging and uncertain times, the quality of leadership and governance is key to shape new visions and ways of doing business that will stand the test of time. The ability of businesses to recover fully from the pandemic and to engage competitively in the new normal will hinge strongly on good corporate governance,” she stressed.
Mrs Awadzi continued, “Good corporate governance will ensure that businesses are run and governed in a manner that harnesses the scarce resources available to create lasting value for all their stakeholders on a sustainable basis. In the new normal, good corporate governance will be even more of a critical element of institutional survival, resilience, sustainability.”
As part of a regulatory crackdown in the banking sector undertaken by the Bank of Ghana in 2018 to restore confidence and stability, the central bank revoked the licences of UT Bank and UniBank Ghana Limited. Their assets and liabilities were then handed over to the state-owned GCB Bank due to poor corporate governance practices.
This subsequently resulted in the mass corporate failures in Ghana’s banking and securities sectors which has in the last few years led to the demise of 420 institutions licensed by the BoG, and several fund management companies licensed by the Securities and Exchange Commission.