Making Finance Work for Africa and partners highlight the role of strong corporate governance in financial sector development

Making Finance Work for Africa (MFW4A), in partnership with KPMG International last week hosted a webinar on strengthening corporate governance for financial sector development in Africa.

As the COVID-19 pandemic strains the resilience of Africa’s financial sector, the 28 July webinar highlighted the role of corporate governance in strengthening the financial sector to cope with different stages of the crisis.

Major evolutions in corporate governance have often been driven by episodes of crisis or instability, resulting in the revisions and tightening of rules, the participants heard.

Corporate governance is defined as a set of relationships between a company’s management, its board, shareholders and other stakeholders. The webinar explored the general principles of good governance and focused on the role of the board of directors and the management team in achieving operational goals and efficiency.

Thierry Mbimi, Partner & Head of Financial Services Advisory at KPMG, told participants: “Corporate governance should be to the executive management what Central Banks and regulators are to the financial system.” Where regulators are behind the curve, corporate policies can take the lead in creating more robust corporate governance structures, he said.

For the financial sector, corporate governance primarily aims to put in place the correct procedures to mitigate risks and improve overall risk management. Mbimi and other participants noted that at a global level, some initiatives have recently been launched for banks and insurance companies to fulfill their mandate of ensuring prudent risk, while also pursuing their business objectives.

The Making Finance Work for Africa Partnership (MFW4A) is an initiative to support the development of African financial sectors. It operates as an independent entity, with its secretariat hosted within the African Development Bank’s headquarters in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

For more details on this webinar and to listen to recordings, visit: https://www.mfw4a.org/news-events. The #MFW4Awebinarseries series will break in August and will resume in September 2020.