Ghana Banking Awards slated for July 8
Corporate Initiative Ghana (CIG) has started 16th edition of the annual Ghana Banking Awards for July 8, 2017.
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The prestigious awards which has grown to become one of the country’s most transparent awards since its inception has rewarded banks which had distinguished themselves in various categories over the years.
The Chairman of the Awards Planning Board, Nana Otuo Acheampong, speaking at the launch of the 2016 edition on March 23 said the theme, “Redefining a Sustainable Customer Experience in Banking, sixty years after independence,” was meant to put a premium on customers as a valuable resource for banks.
He emphasised the importance of the customer and the need for banks to sustain relationships with them to spur growth.
“Building and sustaining customer confidence and trust in banking promotes efficiency and stability, and helps to create positive outcomes for both banks and their customers,” he said.
Shareholding in banks
Nana Otuo Acheampong said at the time Ghana gained independence, there were only three universal banks in Ghana, namely, Standard Chartered Bank, Barclays bank and the then Ghana Commercial Bank, now GCB Bank.
He said the ratio of foreign versus Ghanaian majority shareholdings in the banks at independence were 67 per cent foreign and 33 per cent Ghanaian.
“On independence day on Monday, March 6, 2017, there were 33 banks with respective foreign and Ghanaian majority shareholdings of 52 per cent and 48 per cent,” he said.
Relevance of customers
The Director of Vodafone Business Solutions, Ms Angela Mensah-Opoku, reiterated the relevance of the customer to every business entity and the need for them to be empowered.
She said customer experience must be an end to end journey so that companies could attract customers that ordinarily wouldn’t have been attracted to them.
The Chief Executive Officer of West Blue Consulting, Ms Valentina Mintah lauded organisers of the annual awards, as they have contributed to efficiency in the service delivery of banks.
The Awards
The 16th edition of the Ghana Banking awards will see eligible banks competing for awards in 15 categories agreed on by the Technical Committee (TC). The TC is made up of Ersnt&Young, a Big-Four auditing firm with international reputation, RIMCS Consult, a reputable research company, TEMPLE Advisory, a management consulting firm among others..
The various banks would attempt to outdo each other to emerge the best bank in customer care, advisory services, trade finance, trade deal of the year, long term loan finance and savings/deposit account.
The other categories are best bank in retail banking, corporate banking, agriculture/ forestry/ fishing, products and service innovation, competitive pricing, CSR, financial performance, bank growth and the ultimate, bank of the year.
There are two other awards to be exclusively given and sponsored by the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GHiPPS). The categories are the most active E-zwich bank and the bank that promotes cashless transactions.