15th Ghana Banking Awards will be landmark celebration — Nana Acheampong

The Chairman of the Ghana Banking Awards Planning Board, Nana Otuo Acheampong, has given the assurance that this year’s 15th awards ceremony will be a landmark celebration for not only Corporate Initiative Ghana (CIG), organisers of the awards but universal banks as well.

“After organizing this for 15 years, it is time to celebrate its impact on the banking industry so far and reflect on the future”, he said after the second technical committee meeting last week.

The technical committee is made up of representatives of all the universal banks, Ernst&Young, the events statisticians and Rims Consult, a research company.

Meanwhile he said CIG in collaboration with the universal banks and the award’s event statisticians, has reviewed the methodology for the survey of banks for this year’s awards.

Key among the review is the weight given to some of the award categories, particularly the Best Bank in Financial Performance, which is to receive the highest score.

Explaining the rationale for the review Nana Otuo Acheampong, said the move was intended to ensure greater transparency because “that has been the hallmark of CIG and we will have to protect that integrity at all times.”

He explained that the nature of competition within the banking sector required that any bank declared winner deserved that award and must be without any ambiguities.

“We hold these meetings with the banks and event statisticians, including Ernst & Young, an internationally recognised accounting firm, and RIMS Consult, a reputable research company, to ensure that no one is left out of the process to select the best bank for the various categories,” he said.

According to him, one of the reasons the Ghana Banking Awards, which is 15 years this year, has stood the test of time as the most recognised awards in the country is the involvement of the players in the industry in determining how they should be judged among other things.

On why the weighting of the Best Bank in Financial Performance category was raised, Nana Acheampong said a bank that won that category was most likely to win the coveted Bank of the Year award.

“To be the best bank in Ghana, you must really have a strong financial position and I think that was the reason behind the wisdom of the committee to agree to have that weight reviewed,” he said.

Nana Acheampong said preparations towards the awards was in progress to ensure a successful 15th celebration this year.

Meanwhile, he said the planning board was in contact with interested companies to associate with the event to make it a grand success.