Following a formal proposal by the Minister for Business Development Dr. Mohammed Awal on the need to institute best practices within Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), the Institute of Directors (IoD) Ghana has taken steps to address them.

The Institute is developing Certified Mentorship Scheme that cuts across all sectors aimed at certifying mentors to deliver mentoring to operators and owners of SMEs in observing best practices.

This is part of interventions taken by the IoD to ensure best practices as study findings depict that majority of SMEs on the African continent do not survive beyond second generation.

According to President of IoD, Mr. Rockson Dogbegah, one of the factors accounting for this problem is inappropriate direction and lack of succession planning within SMEs.

Best practices outreach

In the move to establish ten (10) regional branches by the end of July, 2019, the IoD has inaugurated the Central and Western Regional branches on the 12th and 13th June respectively.

The progress brings the total inaugurated regional branches to six following the establishment of Volta, Eastern, Ashanti and Bono Regional branches recently.

Members constituted onto the Branch Committee are mandated to serve in championing best corporate practices in the regions as well as bringing good corporate practices to the doorsteps of members and ensure that all operations of the IoD are easily accessible by the public within their respective regions

Subsequently, the Institute signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Tarkwa University in the Western Region to promote corporate governance practices. Mr. Dogbegah signed on behalf of IoD whiles Prof. Kumah signed on behalf of the University. Members at the function resolved to be ambassadors of punctuality.

This collaboration with institutions and among other things, is aimed at ensuring that corporate governance is factored into the mindset and curriculum of all tertiary institutions by promoting and advancing the course of teaching, learning, and practice of good corporate governance.

Meanwhile, having recognized the need to deepen the gap between industry and academia, IoD is positioning itself to facilitate bridging the gap in this process.