K.K. Sarpong advocates inclusion of more women on boards

The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Dr K. K. Sarpong, has advocated the inclusion of a good number of competent women on boards of companies, whether state-owned or private.

“I have come to one happy conclusion based on my experiences, generally it is an excellent asset to boardroom culture to have competent women on boards.

“They are a moderating influence when debates are heated and approach issues cautiously and deliver their positions gracefully”, he said when he delivered the keynote address at the just-ended 5th CEOs Summit in Accra.

Dr Sarpong, who has  a rich corporate background having worked at the executive  level across multiple sectors said women engaged in pre-meeting consultations to generate consensus but were not easily convinced to support motions that they did not believe in.

“Overall, they are extremely fair and firm on disciplinary issues”, he said.

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Dr Sarpong used the opportunity to list a few of such women who had contributed immensely to the growth of companies in the country saying “I have had the privilege of working with some wonderful women, such as Mrs Cecilia Cofie (Domod Industries) on the Tema Oil Refinery Limited Board; Mrs Elizabeth Villars (Camelot Ghana Limited) on the board of Merchant Bank Limited now UMB Bank; Mrs Helen Lokko on the board of GCB Bank, and Ms Nana Adjoa Hackman on the GNPC board”.

Explaining his assertion further, Dr Sarpong said: “I am not talking about single female representation or mere tokenism, but the inclusion of a reasonable number of competent women on our boards.

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“The wonderful women I listed above were not just women but competent, knowledgeable and skillful”.

Against this background, he stressed the need for a balanced gender in boardrooms and noted that as established by empirical research , such a move would help the growth of businesses and lead to the achievement of the needed resilience.

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Tech infrastructure

On the value of technology, Dr Sarpong said committing resources to technology infrastructure and the training of user employees was a necessity else digitalisation would only be lip service.

“Some businesses are not very keen on spending money to retrain staff, sometimes for the fear that after acquiring skills and knowledge, such trained employees may leave the business for greener pastures.

"But friends, we cannot work with this dangerous posture. We need to invest in improving the skills-set of our workforce so that our businesses will grow and achieve the resilience required”.

He reminded business and corporate leaders that COVID-19 had changed how people lived, worked and did business.

“If our staff are not retrained to do business using technology, and if they lack the necessary equipment to work with, our businesses will lose its significance in the world.

“Work is now by a touch of a button, and we should give our working staff the opportunity to engage in the business.”

Against this background, he urged CEOs to budget and commit financial resources to procure technology and retrain their workforce to achieve business and economic resilience.


The digitalisation move

Dr Sarpong said: “Digitisation is key to the future of businesses and our society at large.

“Resetting the corporate governance agenda post COVID-19, will require strong, fearless and competent leadership.”

He urged business leaders to initiate the discussion in their various workplaces saying, “business leaders must become more proactive in adopting and implementing digital solutions.”

“On this journey, we should ensure the right board culture, maintain a commitment to society, install a board with diverse competencies and a decent number of female representations, provide financial resources to acquire the needed technological infrastructure and train employees”.

The Director-General of State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA), Mr Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, urged business leaders at the summit to ensure that they learned from one another and worked towards ensuring sustained growth and profitability of their institutions.

That, he said, could be achieved if they worked to digitalise their processes and ensure that they served their clients better.