The Institute of Directors (IoD) Ghana has urged the government to consider appointing professional practitioners to serve on the Board of public institutions.

The Institute said that would strengthen good corporate governance practice, and improve the output of public institutions, especially, State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs).

“We have a pool of directors that can serve on your boards to enhance and support SOEs instead of relying on friends and political appointees,” Mr Rockson Dogbegah, the immediate past President of IoD said.

He was speaking at the 2023 IoD investiture, awards and dinner ceremony of the Institute in Accra on Friday evening.

He expressed concerns about how SOEs continued to record poor performance annually, attributing it partly, to the lack of adherence to corporate governance practices.

Mr Dogbegah said: “There are a lot of opportunities that are opened to us following the establishment of the appropriate corporate governance architecture in Ghana as a result of the intervention of IoD and supported by all stakeholders,” and urged the government to make good use of those resources.

Mr Felix Addo, President of the Ghana Association of Restructuring and Insolvency Advisors (GARIAH), reiterated the importance of appointing trained directors onto boards of of public institutions.

“Most of our appointed directors and leaders of companies don't get there because of merit, but connections and relationships, and to a large extent, account for the mess we're in today,” he asserted.

“On paper, we have excellent programmes and structures. The challenge is the will to enforce and comply with the structures. Let's get trained directors to be recommended to various boards to help address these challenges,” Mr Addo said.

He urged the new Governing Council to engage the relevant stakeholders, including the State Interest Governing Authority (SIGA) to spearhead the agenda of having members of IoD appointed to serve on public boards.

He also asked them to intensify campaigns to sustain and increase sensitisation and use of the corporate governance code among both public and private sector organisations.

Mrs Angela Carmen Appiah, the new President of IOD, advised members to focus on building the resilience of their organisations in view of  external and internal economic shocks.

Consistent with the vision of the Body to become the leading reference point for directorship, she advised members  to be an embodiment of professionalism in their establishments.