2019 Tutu Fellow Marcia Ashong, the founder and Executive Director of TheBoardroom Africa, has partnered with the Ghana Stock Exchange on a new report assessing progress on gender diversity across the region. The report is titled Board Diversity Index, Ghana 2020 Edition. The index tracks the number of listed boards by country and identifies all board seats filled by women. It also monitors the number of women in chair and other executive positions.
Research to date covers publicly listed boards across 11 African countries, and now includes Ghana.
Marcia said that this year, her company was delighted to count the Ghana Stock Exchange as a partner. She said the Ghana Stock Exchange has a clear understanding of the strong link between gender diversity and good corporate governance.
The report shows that women are still under-represented in boardrooms of companies listed in Ghana and also showed that, out of the 37 companies, women hold only 23% of board seats and 24% of non-executive director seats. There has been some progress, though, as these figures represent a three percent increase in board seats held by women and a four percent increase in non-executive director seats held by women from 2019.
TheBoardroom Africa is the largest regional network of female executives in Africa. Its goal is to improve access to board opportunities for women and accelerate the presence of women on boards by working with development finance institutions, private equity investors and corporations to accelerate the appointment of women on boards and build a growing pipeline of board-ready women while inspiring and educating the business community on the power of diverse leadership.
The full report is available at TheBoardroom Africa website as a PDF.
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