Integrity Magazine, a subsidiary of Krif Ghana Limited, has held the maiden edition of a series of webinars aimed at promoting good corporate governance amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Themed “Effects of COVID-19 on Good Corporate Governance in Ghana”, which was held on Tuesday in Accra, it served as a platform for businesses to discuss the next strategic steps to take in order to sail through the coronavirus crisis with minimal losses.

Speaking on the effects of the pandemic on companies, Rev. Kennedy Okosun, Executive Chairman of Krif Ghana Limited and Publisher of the Integrity Magazine, said many organisations would “have to brace themselves for the possibility of take-overs”.

According to him, “there might be critical unanswered questions rummaging through the minds of many as we move into a period of a new normal.

“Our culture, corporate behaviour and organisational output are going to be affected, whether we like it or not. Organisations will never go back to doing business as usual, or doing business the way they knew how,” he said.

Rev. Okosun noted that businesses must be ready to embrace the positive or negative changes which may occur after the pandemic, adding that businesses would also have to make far “reaching decisions regarding liquidity and capital considerations”.

He argued that the COVID-19 era was also testing the leadership and management structures of organizations, hence the need for businesses to identify gaps and then strengthen the areas where they may be falling short.

Mr Michael Osikoya, the Chief Executive Officer of Mikensy Consulting Limited, examining the effects of COVID-19 on various stakeholders, also said, “Just as we are recording human fatality, we may not be able to account for the number of businesses that suffer similar ‘fatality’ from the hands of COVID -19.”

He noted that though the pharmaceutical industry was believed to have benefited from the crisis, industries including tourism and leisure, aviation and maritime, automotive, construction, real estate and manufacturing, were hard-hit by the pandemic.

“Government has been affected adversely by this virus because it has had to provide various stimulus packages and dole out free cash to support various stakeholders, interest groups, businesses and citizens.

“Hard decisions had to be taken, government has lost income from taxes and has resorted to borrowing as part of measures to bring the economy back on track,” he added.

For the solutions, Mr Osikoya suggested that business, leaders and stakeholders should enter into a “restart” mode to come out of the challenges the virus has imposed on them.

He said that all the various stakeholders in business such as the shareholders, employees, customers and others must forfeit certain benefits to bring back businesses on track.

The webinar brought together leaders from various organisations in the corporate environment in Ghana.

By Spectator Reporter