A two-day workshop organised by the National Office of the APRM that sought to revise the 2023 targeted review for Ghana ended in Accra on 1 August with a call for participants to appreciate the revisions made for the review in the light of a new government in place since January 2025.
A Targeted review happens when a request from an AU member state that is part of the APRM asks the APRM continental Secretariat to undertake a review by the state in question.
The stakeholder workshop had three key objectives, with first being to validate the 2023 report and review key findings.
Secondly, to incorporate new developments that had happened since the report was concluded in 2024; and ensure alignment with national and regional governance strategies.
In 2023, Ghana’s targeted review could not have been more timely, given the AU theme of the year, which called for an Acceleration of the implementation of AfCFTA.
Just as Ghana was one of the first countries to undergo a general review back in 2006 in Khartoum, Sudan, so it was unprecedented for Ghana to be going through a targeted review on AfCFTA. Why this is important is because the Secretariat of AfCFTA is here in Accra.
Secondly, by dint of the Accra being now home of intra-African trade, it has become important to identify the extent to which the companies are being encouraged to observe good corporate governance so as to prepare for the stock market; have access to international capital, and engage easily in cross-border trade
The onset of the Abidjan-Lagos highway corridor, which is set to begin construction in 2026, paving an opportunity to deepen cross-border trade, and deepen the promise of AfCFTA for citizens, makes the revision of the targeted review even more timely and necessary.
This gargantuan opportunity to boost regional trade becomes noteworthy for those concerned with the game-changer aspect of the AfCFTA conversation.
In 2015, as ECOWAS was celebrating its fortieth anniversary, the regional grouping had become the 16th largest economy in the world. The Covid 19 pandemic notwithstanding, the region, and the continent, is bouncing back.
No doubt history was made in 2023 as APRM engaged stakeholders across MDAs and more here in Accra, including in different regions of the country on the AfCFTA.
If it is true that an unexamined life is not worth living, then it is also true APRM has for twenty years reminded us about the necessity of self-examination and peer review. Post-2013, when Agenda 2063 came to life, APRM reminded us that self-assessment in the spirit of aspiration 3 of Agenda 2063, calling for good governance, is all the more critical as we collectively cohere our minds around how AfCFTA can be accelerated and implemented in consonance with corporate governance.
The 2-day workshop cited, in the revised APRM targeted review, the proposal of the government’s 24-hour economy, and the establishment of the Women’s Development Bank, as two key examples of how these will foster a more robust and effective corporate governance framework for countries.
One key example of corporate governance was the government’s decision to institute a Code of Conduct for Public Officers.
NOTE TO EDITORS
▶️ Corporate Governance is one of the *six thematic areas* of the APRM
▶️ The *Targeted Review (TR)* is a review made *on request* of an AU Member State that has joined the APRM to investigate a sector-specific issue to the government in question
▶️Ghana is the first country *to have requested APRM Continental Secretariat* (in Midrand, South Africa) to prepare a TR demystifying AfCFTA
▶️ Ghana has been hosting the AfCFTA Secretariat since 2020
▶️ a TR is normally launched by an APRM Member that has requested, but because last government (NPP) left in December 2024 without a launch, the new government is compelled to launch
▶️ TR has been revised to include developments by the new government in Ghana (NDC)
▶️ TR will be discussed in Addis Ababa in February 2026 at next AU Summit before launch
