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Corporate governance is a never-ending journey
2017-01-30Staff Report 2 Staff Reporter Windhoek-Corporate governance is a never-ending journey that needs to be relooked and reshaped continuously in order to meet and address the challenges facing modern-day private and public corporates. This was the message at a breakfast session hosted jointly by Nedbank and Ernst & Young in Windhoek recently. The session also explored how corporate governance structures can incorporate stakeholder inclusivity and was attended by delegates from both the public and private sector. Amongst the speakers were Nedbank Managing Director Lionel Matthews, Tiaan Bazuin from the Namibia Stock Exchange, JG van Graan and Joanne Henstock from Ernst & Young. “Dialogue is good for sharing ideas and a platform like this one helps us realise that it is important for us to not only rally around the financial wealth and health of a business, but to look at the whole ecosystem – this includes the regulator, society and the stakeholders. Namibia has a small population and if we take hands and work together we can get through what is projected to be a challenging 2017 and create new growth points for our society and government,” said Matthews. Making specific reference to the King Code of Governance Principles and the King IV Report on corporate governance, Henstock outlined that corporate governance is a journey that is continuous. “Corporate governance is a journey - you have never really arrived, even with all the good work you have done or are doing. This is because we live in an ever changing world where movement is always happening. As Southern Africa, this dialogue reminds people of that, especially in the context of an emerging economy. We are in a moving space and everybody needs to do their part otherwise the economy and the country stagnate. This dialogue acts as a reminder for us to keep moving, ultimately changing our governance approaches and ourselves,” she said. The King Code of Governance Principles and the King IV Report on Governance (King III) was formally introduced in 2009 by the Institute of Directors in Southern Africa (IODSA). King III provided a firm foundation for world-class corporate governance and King IV, which is the latest report, represents a development principle in content and approach. Amongst its objectives are to promote corporate governance as integral to running an organisation and delivering governance outcomes such as ethical culture, good performance, effective control and legitimacy. It also encourages transparent and meaningful reporting to stakeholders. 2017-01-30Staff Report 2
