President of the Institute of Directors-Ghana, Rockson Dogbegah says Africa’s biggest challenge is “complaining, looking up to others for support, fear and lacking the appropriate effective and ethical leadership to effect change.”

According to him, most Africans view the transformation of the continent as unachievable due to the lack of belief in themselves and a detrimental preference for simply complaining instead of actually taking action.

Speaking at the maiden African Corporate Governance Network webinar, May 19, Rockson Dogbegah said the transformation of Africa is possible “if we believe in ourselves and subject our minds to a serious overhaul, reduce the amount of time we spend talking and complaining and plough the talking time into action.”

He stated that with good effective leadership, courage, discipline and a strong conviction to transform the continent, Africa could go beyond aid.

Citing examples across the world he explained his point as follows;

“I believe strongly that if we have a good leadership, we can achieve most of our wishes and aspirations as a Continent and as an Association. We read about great leaders who have led major transformations.

“Singapore is a case we all know. Lee Kuan Yew, the Prime Minister of Singapore led his country with decisive leadership. He believed in his convictions and didn’t look back when he started the transformational journey.  We need courage.

“Another good example is Rwanda. When I visited Rwanda two years ago, I saw a country that I can compare to any developed country in the world, very clean community and where systems are working very well. When I asked how they did it, the answer was effective leadership.”

He, therefore, called on members of the ACGN to stimulate their minds to provide “the appropriate leadership to ensure we achieve our goals.”

He added that, “ACGN is at a stage where we need to break away from the shackles of over reliance on the generosity of donors to build it. We need to reignite the momentum that was triggered by the current leadership of ACGN.”

“This will entail among other things, a clear vision and mission that is supported by a set of SMART objectives that is owned by all team members.”