The just concluded Institute of Certified Secretaries Corporate Governance Awards (COG Awards) where our lead consultant Patricia Wanjama played the triple role as trainer of assessors, acted as an assessor and also assisted in the quality assurance process as part of the analysis of the assessments, culminating with a presentation to the jury, was indeed another win for us.

It was exciting to see the jubilation as the different awardees (both officers and institutions) celebrated their wins but even more insightful was how different organisations prepared for the COG Award Assessments.

For context, In year 2010, the Institute of Certified Secretaries in partnership with other organizations, inaugurated an annual governance award to recognize organisations and individuals who exhibit the highest standard or Corporate Governance titled the “ (ICS) Champions of Governance (COG) Award”.  The award aims at promoting good governance through:

  1. Recognition of practice and application of good governance in the both the public and private sector entities.
  2. Recognition of innovations in organizations that support good governance.
  3. Encouraging organizations to focus on enhancement of good governance.

There are similar initiatives globally and to mention a few, there is the Governance Intelligence in the USA, who are on their 17th Corporate Governance awards; the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) awards which started in July 2014 and which recognizes and celebrate excellence in corporate governance and investor stewardship in global asset management and, The CharteredInstitute of South Africa who reward excellence in corporate reporting including the adherence to Kings IV code, the most respected governance code in Africa.

So if you would like to position yourself as Company Secretary, CEO or Chair or Company of the year in the next COG awards, take this as your preparation sheet. Start preparation early as the Kenyan saying goes ‘mapema ndio best!’

1. Seek buy in from your organisation and its leadership to participate in the COG awards 2026. Build a case for its benefits, which include an independent and reasonably priced assessment that can prepare you for a governance audit, the opportunity to put your (governance) house in order and finally, that you are playing to win- the brand and reputational value is immense.

2. Sign up for the COG awards early. Nothing beats a path to a win than setting it out as an early intention. If you have not interacted with the ICS before, send an email to info@ics.co.ke and express your interest, they shall be at hand to guide you on the next steps.

3. Once signed up, interact with the self assessment tools early. Look at the parameters these tools are assessing, prepare a physical and online data room collating documents that provide evidence of your governance practices and if some are not in place, get the drafts going.

4. A month prior to the assessment, carry out the self assessment and make a mental note on how you shall respond to the assessors on your governance pratices when they come around. Submit this and the payment in good time in order to get an early allocation of assessors.

5. Schedule the assessors visit 2 weeks in advance and block out a full day for the exercise. Block out time for senior leaders who may need to provide additional context to assessors questions so that you present a united and wholesome front as an organisation.

6. Practice hospitality for the assessment, i.e a comfortable meeting room/ space, provide directions to the venue and parking, minimal refreshments, put together the documents that the assessors require and finally, give undivided attention to the assessors when there in order to make the most out of the meeting.

7. Close out the assessment by ensuring that the assessors got what they needed and in case of further clarifications, remain at hand for any follow up questions.

8. Sign up to attend the gala dinner and prepare your photographer and cheering squad when your name is called out 😎

PRO TIP: You raise your chances of a wholesome assessment if you enter your organisation in all available categories so ensure your leadership is on board with it.

At Akira, we conduct governance audits but we can as well prepare you for a Governance Assessment. Speak to us today to get you COG 2026 ready!