In my last post Weeding out corruption critical to African growth prospects we looked at the current state of corruption in Africa and its impact on conducting business on the continent. Below are four tips for an anti-corruption strategy in Africa:
#1 Recognize nuance: corruption varies by country, sector and type of interaction (both public and private sector) – risk assessments and due diligence to highlight ‘red flags’ associated with important transactions are always worthwhile investments and should be built into the deal cycle accordingly
#2 Training and messaging is invaluable: consistently repeat the mantra to staff in-country, to management at HQ, to suppliers and other service-providers, and to government and wider stakeholders that the organization is not prepared to involve itself in illegal or unethical practices
#3 Uncover wrong-doing proactively: prevention is cheaper than cure, but self-diagnosis is also preferable to external investigation; publicizing whistle-blowing channels and regular self-auditing are invaluable tools in this process
#4 Prepare for the worst: even with the best intentions, and policies, wrong-doing will still be a realistic possibility somewhere in your business footprint in Africa; the worst time to be crafting a coping strategy is on the fly so proactively prepare a corrupt incident crisis management and business continuity strategy to cover for that eventuality
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