Centre for Corporate Governance (CCG)

From TrustAfrica wiki - African Regional Organizations

Centre for Corporate Governance (CCG)
P.O. Box 13936, 00800
Brookside Grove, Off Waiyaki Way
Westlands, Nairobi, Kenya

Tel: +254-20-4440003/ 4443230
Cell: +254-722-700-180
Fax: +254-20-4440427

Email: info@ccg.or.ke
Website: http://www.ccg.or.ke

Mr. Karugor Gatamah, Chief Executive Officer — Email: chiefeo@ccg.or.ke, kgatamah@ccg.or.ke

Description

The Centre for Corporate Governance & Secretariat to the Pan African Consultative Forum on Corporate Governance is an independent, not-for-profit organization established by the Private Sector Initiative for Corporate Governance in 1999. Through training, education, awareness raising and research, it seeks to:

• Improve the strategic leadership and direction of public, social and business enterprises to enhance their competitiveness, efficiency & effectiveness, viability and sustainability in the context of the global market;
  
• Promote the stability, sustainability, credibility and attractiveness of the business sector in Africa as a priority destination for both domestic and foreign direct investments in order to increase the capacity of the business sector to create & produce wealth and provide increased employment opportunities; and
  
• Ensure the highest standards of corporate governance, corporate responsibility, corporate citizenship and business ethics in an effort to enhance the spirit of citizen engagement, involvement and participation in the development process so as to secure the stable environment in which business enterprises can grow and thrive.

Track Record

As corporate governance has gained currency in Africa, the Centre continues to register significant impact across different areas of its work.

Institutional Capacity Building: The Centre has established a Private Sector Corporate Governance Trust, later transformed into CCG, a company limited by guarantee, in September 2002. It established effective governance and management structures and systems, facilitated the establishment of the Pan African Consultative Forum on Corporate Governance (PACFCG), facilitated the establishment of the Kenya Shareholder’s Association and the Institute of Directors (Kenya), and also initiated discussions on formation of National Focal points on corporate governance in several African Countries.

Materials, Training and Education: The Centre has developed training manuals and course modules for training of directors through a series of courses. It has trained and certified a total of 1,644 directors from 41 countries in Africa through its 5-day certification course—held in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Rwanda, Senegal, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Some 1,610 directors have passed through CCG’s 3-day induction course, and 826 directors through the 2 and 1-day courses. CCG has also developed a training manual and course module for the 3-day training of trainers. Some 75 people have been trained and certified as trainers out of the more than 200 who have qualified to be trained as trainers after undergoing the 5-day residential training course. The Centre has also developed a 3-day training manual and course module for training chairpersons of corporations and trained and certified 110 Chairpersons of leading corporations in East Africa.

Additionally, and among other things, CCG has collaborated with the African Development Bank (AfDB), Government of Rwanda, the West African Bankers Association and Centre Africain D’etudes Superieures en Gestion (CESAG) to modify, translate and domesticate the materials to the needs of Francophone Africa. It has also developed curricula for a Masters Degree and Post graduate diploma in corporate governance for adoption and implementation by collaborating universities and institutions of higher learning.

Research and Development: CCG has considerable capacity in this area. It has conducted nine studies of corporate governance in Kenya and Eastern Africa and developed and disseminated a series of guidelines on corporate governance principles and practice. Forthcoming issuances include guidelines for SMEs, and on certification of suppliers for public-sector procurement.

Monitoring & Evaluation, Advocacy & Communication: Significantly, CCG undertook the Kenya country corporate governance self-assessment under the NEPAD African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) as the thematic Lead Technical Agency. It has continued to provoke interest in corporate governance through workshops for the leadership of state-owned corporations, universities, the Institute of Directors, the media and shareholders. It has established the Pan African website with country sites for the 53 countries of Africa, and issues quarterly bulletins on developments in corporate governance in Africa. Additionally, it has facilitated and co-organized four pan-African consultative meetings on corporate governance in Africa, two high level consultative meetings on corporate governance in East Africa, and provided inputs on corporate governance to various governance meetings in Africa organized by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), AfDB and other regional and international organizations.

Collaborative efforts: The Centre has sought collaboration with various institutions, country initiatives and development partners to create generic and harmonized standards, training materials and modules that individual countries in Africa and the respective sub-regions can use to ensure a coordinated framework in the promotion of corporate governance in Africa.

The Centre also collaborates with regional, pan-African and international agencies in Africa within the framework of the Pan African Consultative Forum on Corporate Governance and NEPAD. The objective of this collaboration is identify and agree on priorities, key issues and challenges that needed to be addressed to facilitate the harmonized implementation of corporate governance standards and practices in Africa. The Centre has also partnered with others in developing the corporate governance questionnaire now used in the NEPAD APRM country Assessments.

Challenges

In terms of capacity, CCG has not as yet developed a critical mass of staff able to work in the different official languages used across Africa. This frustrates efforts to harmonize and unify codes, implement training and promote corporate governance practices.

The major challenge CCG faces is the lack of adequate core funding in light of the expectations in many African countries that donors would—through CCG—fund the costs of promoting corporate governance, setting up national task forces and delivering training. From September 1999 to March 2007, CCG’s activities have incurred costs of US$5,368,500, with US$2,339,100 of these costs generated from paid activities, and US$2,969.400 from donors. Major donors have included the African Capacity Building Foundation, Ford Foundation, Canadian International Development Agency, AfDB, Global Corporate Governance Forum, Commonwealth Secretariat, Centre for International Private Enterprise, Royal Netherlands Embassy, UNDP, AusAid and DFID. CGG’s estimated budget for the five-period from March 2007 to March 2011 is US$6.7 million.

CCG also faces challenges in building genuine partnerships that promote the interests of Africa while dependent on external donor funding. It has also been difficult to create long term partnerships with various groups as: many business entities have sought partnerships that give automatic certification and seal of approval of their governance practices without regular authentication; many country initiatives seek partnerships as basis of funding by CCG; and development partners seek establishment of partnerships to promote their agenda.

Opportunities

Private foundations have the opportunity to support CCG in establishing an initial endowment to establish a Corporate Governance Trust Fund, considered crucial to ensure the center’s longevity, as well as that of the Pan African Corporate Governance initiative. Support could also help bolster institutional capacity by covering the costs of three experts with working knowledge of corporate governance and business practices in francophone, lusophone and Arabic within Sharia law framework over a 2-3 year period.

Support is also needed to set up Pan African Corporate Governance monitoring, recognition and reward scheme with funding for development of criteria, support for an annual or biennial monitoring and evaluation exercise and trophy over a minimum of 6-8 years. Core support from private foundations would also help CGG build its institutional framework, including a high level training centre, new equipment and a dynamic website. A state-of-the-art resource centre on corporate governance in Africa could also benefit from support.