Kunda urges journalists focus on corporate governance

George Kunda, Zambian VP

“Journalists have a unique ability to disseminate information on corporate governance to the business people and the general public to make readers aware of companies' activities that could have [a] significant impact on society,” he said.

Addressing journalists from East and Southern Africa at the start of a week-long media training programme on Reporting Corporate Governance, Kunda said adopting corporate governance best practices results in improved access to external financing and helps lower the cost of capital while improving operational performance.

For the last 25 years, Kunda said, he has seen a proliferation of corporate scandals and corporate failures all over the world and therefore journalists should work with government and promote good corporate governance practices in the region.

“Most of those failures had been traced to either the collapse or non-existence of good corporate governance practices in affected organisations,” he said.

The workshop was organised by the Global Corporate Governance Forum in conjunction with the Zambia Institute of Directors and funded Reuters Foundation is funding it.