The Managing Director of the Graphic Communications Group Limited, Mr Kenneth Ashigbey, has urged banking institutions in the country to avail themselves to what he described as “home-grown” award programmes that transparently recognises excellence in the industry.
According to him, some banks are fond of flaunting awards bestowed on them by institutions outside the country as against those given them by reputable local institutions.
Mr Ashigbey, who made the call in a speech read on his behalf at the launch of the 13th edition of the prestigious Ghana Banking Awards in Accra on July 9, said the foreign awards could not be fully trusted because of the lack of transparency in the process of selection.
According to him, the Ghana Banking Awards had a set of transparent criteria and methodology that recognises the sterling performance of the banks and noted that all support should be given to the local award process to continuously make it successful and more vibrant in the country.
He described as laudable, the support from corporate sponsors to ensure that the objectives of the awards were achieved and pledged for greater collaboration to ensure that the processes were well dealt with to sustain the programme.
“We at the Graphic Communications Group Limited are collaborating with Corporate Initiative Ghana (CIG), the organiser of the awards because of the value we place on it”, he said.
Mr Ashigbey said the company recognised the impact the awards had had on the banking industry and expressed the hope that with greater support and collaboration, it could be made better to impact more on competition within the industry the economy as whole.
This year’s awards had been slated for August, this year.
The awards is on the theme: “Identifying and rewarding excellence in the banking services proposition” and has Graphic Communications Group Limited as a major collaborator.
Award Categories
This year, 15 award categories have been identified to include Customer Care, Advisory Services, Trade Finance, Trade Deal of the Year, Long Term Loan Finance, Household Finance and Enterprise Finance.
The rest are Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing; Product Innovation, Competitive Pricing, Corporate Social Responsibility, Financial Performance, Bank Growth and Bank of the Year.
New additions to the award categories this year include ‘The Most Active e-Zwich Bank’ to encourage the banks in the Ghana Interbank Payment Systems (GhIPSS) product of e-zwich and IT and electronic banking, as it is now the norm rather than a choice banks have to make.
Approach and Methodology
The Chairman of the Awards Planning Board, Nana Otuo Acheampong, said the approach and methodology for assessing banks for the various categories were reviewed and agreed by the technical committee which is made up of representatives of the banks.
To underscore the independence of the awards process, he added, no universal bank was allowed to provide sponsorship. Instead, non-universal banks and corporate entities offer sponsorship.
The Executive Secretary of the CIG, Ms Matilda Ohene, said in the coming years, CIG would actively call for the support of local and international partners in finance and capacity building to fulfil its mandate to Ghana and beyond.
“As we launch, we expect banks to put their best notes forward and customers to be objective in their responses to the survey,” she said.