‘Prioritise prudence over profitability’
The Finance Minister, Mr Seth Terkper, has advised financial institutions to invest optimal time and resources into building good governance structures and risk mitigation measures that will make them resilient against shocks and ensure that their brands stand the test of time.
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Businesses in the financial sector must also prioritise good governance and controls, prudence and integrity over profit, which could be short-lived, the minister said at the 40th anniversary launch and head office inauguration of the NTHC Limited in Accra.
Achieving this, he said, required that businesses made sustainability the hallmark of their operations.
"As mobilisers and managers of long-term capital, we have very little choice but to develop our markets along sustainable lines," Mr Terkper said in a speech read on his behalf by the Chief Director of the Finance Ministry, Major Mahama Samuel Tara.
"In its broadest sense, this implies that we must be ethical and professional, socially responsible and fair in the way in which we mobilise and deploy capital," he added.
He said players also needed to desist from the practice of using short-term capital for long-term investment, offering dreamland rates of return, making poor investment decisions and/or breaking the laws and regulations that govern the industry
"Financing activities, which have negative social, environmental or economic impact, is not sustainable, even if profitable," the minister observed.
Minister spot-on
The acting managing Director of NTHC, Mr Francis Apanka, said in an interview that the minister was "spot-on" in his advice to the industry, given the volatile nature of the financial market.
With integrity and prudence being the cornerstones of financial market operations, Mr Apanka said players needed to ensure that their operations were well within market regulations.
"It is an important message and I like the way he was specific in what we can do to achieve that. These are things that can help the industry to grow and I think he was spot-on on the things we all should be thinking about," he said.
Charting a new course
After contributing meaningfully to the development of the financial market over the past years, Mr Apanka said NTHC would, over the next decades aim at mobilising long-term capital, which it directed into critical sectors of the economy.
"As a business established and still largely owned by national institutions (SSNIT, NIB and SIC), we have a duty to use our business and our unique position to contribute to the national development agenda.
"An important part of this agenda include mobilising and directing long-term capital to critical sectors of the economy, educating and helping our people to develop the tenets of savings, investment and entrepreneurship and taking our products and services to all, particularly those sections of our population which remain outside the financial services mainstream," he said at the event.
He also thanked the staff and board for their commitment over the years, which he said led to the building of a solid institution with reputation that cuts across the financial sector.
Achievements of NTHC
The anniversary launch, which was on the theme: 'Pioneering Sustainable Investment Banking: Now and into the Future,' aimed at celebrating NTHC's success story over the last four decades while giving it an opportunity to strategise for the next decade.