15th Banking Awards slated for August
The 15th edition of the Ghana Banking Awards, an annual event organised by Corporate Initiative Ghana (CIG), has been launched in Accra.
The event is scheduled for August 2016 and has the theme; “Fifteen years of Ghana Banking Awards: Enriching a Healthy Competitive Landscape in the Drive for Customer Relevance in Banking.”
The Chairman of the Awards Planning Board, Nana Otuo Acheampong, said the theme reflected the competitive nature of banking, both nationally and internationally, while recognising that after the global financial crisis of 2008, banking financial institutions were gradually moving away from transactional banking back to the core mandate of banking: Relationship banking with the customer at the core.
“For the first time in the 15-year history of the Ghana Banking Awards, we are introducing a category to recognise the bank with the best interest rate on savings/deposit accounts. Secondly, we are placing premium on the financial soundness of the Bank of the Year by amending the formula to place a higher emphasis on financial performance. Thus, while previously financial performance accounted for 30 per cent in the formula, henceforth it will be 40 per cent,” he said.
He added that five personalities would also be awarded for their invaluable contributions to the development and advancement of the banking industry in Ghana.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GamAnk Group, Dr Samuel Ankrah, who delivered a keynote address on the theme, said the days when customers were abused and taken for granted by banks and financial institutions should be a thing of the past.
“The approach to an excellent customer service should never be seen by the banks as doing favours to their clients but as an important function to increase their clientele. The rippling effect of good customer service is increase in deposits and more investments which can positively impact profits and turnover,” he said.
He added that the banks should be guided by the woes of yesterday on their duties and responsibilities to their customers and try hard to give them what they deserved.
Award categories
The Ghana Banking Awards presently concentrate on the universal banks sub-sector. The time frames for the awards cover all universal banks with published financial statements for the year ended 31st December 2015.
Out of the current number of 29 universal banks, 28 qualify to participate in the awards. There are 17 categories for this year’s event agreed upon by the technical committee. These include customer care, advisory services, trade finance, trade deal of the year and long-term loan finance.
The rest are Retail banking, corporate banking, agriculture, forestry and fishing, product innovation, competitive pricing, corporate social responsibility, financial performance, bank growth and bank of the year.
Two other awards exclusively given by the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GHiPSS) are the most active E-zwich bank and the bank that promotes cashless transactions.