Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, February 23, 2017
– IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, in partnership with the Côte d’Ivoire Institute of Administrators (INADCI) and the African Corporate Governance Network, launched the Corporate Governance Program in Côte d’Ivoire. The Program, funded by Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), aims at promoting good corporate governance practices and building market capacity.
Good corporate governance helps companies enhance operational and financial performance, mitigate risk, and safeguard against mismanagement. It also helps companies attract new investments and capital to finance their growth.
Corporate governance practices are still insufficiently known and poorly implemented in some West African countries. Few companies in the region implement good corporate governance practices, meanwhile the legal and regulatory framework is still developing. As a region, sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest global average score on the protection of minority investors in the World Bank Group’s Doing Business report.
The aim of the Corporate Governance Program is to help promote a conducive environment for the emergence of local champions in corporate governance, with a focus on an inclusive stakeholder’s approach.
Chinyere Peace Almona, Manager for IFC’s Sub-Saharan Africa Corporate Governance Program, said, “Our expectations of the corporate governance program are high. We have heard from numerous corporations and potential partners in Côte d’Ivoire wanting to work with us around this issue.” She added, “IFC comes with unique experience in the area of corporate governance. Our institution has already helped more than 11,000 companies in more than 30 countries to implement best practices in governance that enable them to have access to new funds estimated at more than $3.2 billion.”
Mrs. Viviane Zunon-Kipre, CEO of INADCI said, “Our mission is to promote best practices in corporate governance in Côte d’Ivoire. The partnership with the International Finance Corporation and the African Corporate Governance Network, such as the one we have developed together through this conference in Abidjan, will enable us to build our capacity and boost our training and sensitization programs.”
The Corporate Governance Program in Africa is launched to improve companies’ performance and foster markets’ capacities growth to draw investors. The program is funded by SECO.
About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. Working with more than 2,000 businesses worldwide, we use our capital, expertise and influence to create opportunity where it’s needed most. In FY15, our long-term investments in developing countries rose to nearly $18 billion, helping the private sector play an essential role in the global effort to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity. For more information, visit
www.ifc.org
About SECO
SECO is Switzerland’s competence center for all core issues relating to economic policy. SECO’s economic development cooperation strives to achieve sustainable growth. Such growth is sustainable if it creates jobs, helps to increase productivity, to reduce poverty, inequalities and global risks. For more information, visit
www.seco-cooperation.ch
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