WINDHOEK – The quality of corporate governance in public enterprises (PEs) is directly correlated to the performance of these entities. This was confirmed by Minister of Public Enterprises Leon Jooste yesterday at the first-ever National Corporate Governance Summit, which took place in Windhoek. 

During his ministerial address at the summit, Jooste noted that many public enterprises actually comply quite well to corporate governance check lists. However, he emphasised that the level of compliance does not necessarily translate into good corporate governance at the respective entities. 

Jooste added that a perception exists in most public enterprises that money can solve all their problems, however, he stressed that the human factor in these enterprises is of paramount importance. 

“Quality corporate governance requires strong and ethical leadership and I therefore encourage bold leadership from all public enterprises,” said Jooste, adding that “integrity and morality cannot be legislated”. 
Yesterday’s event was hosted by the Namibia Institute of Corporate Governance (NICG), and was held in conjunction with the Ministry of Public Enterprises as a main sponsor of the event. The theme for the summit was ‘Repositioning Namibia’s competitiveness through sound governance practices’. 

During the opening of yesterday’s summit, chairperson of the NICG, Escher Luanda said strong corporate governance is a catalyst for sustainable economic development. Said Luanda: “Institutional investors are willing to pay a premium for stock of companies that practice good corporate governance.” Luanda added that with strong corporate governance comes stronger economies and noted that without well-equipped directors on boards that entities cannot practice good corporate governance. 

At the recent launch of the summit, Chairman of the Board of the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN), Mihe Gaomab II, testified that corporate governance faces similar challenges across the African continent. However, he added that Namibia constantly strives to provide more robust corporate governance in practice and not just in theory.  

Besides Jooste’s ministerial address by Jooste, the keynote speaker at the summit was global governance expert Patrick Chisanga.