As a badge of excellence for the banking sector, Corporate Initiative Ghana, a non-profit organisation will launch the 13th edition of the Ghana Banking Awards today, July 9, 2014 in Accra.
The aim of the awards is to identify and reward excellence in the universal banking sector. A press release signed by the Chairman of the Awards Planning Board, Nana Otuo Acheampong, said the awards were given based on both quantitative and qualitative research.
“With the banking regulator’s directive for all banks to make their financial statements public through the press, a rich set of quantitative data is made available for the awards. The quantitative statistics are supplemented with qualitative surveys of both the banks and their customers,” it added.
All data analyses are provided by “a Big-Four auditing firm, Ernst & Young, which brings its globally acclaimed reputation to bear positively on the integrity of the process.”
“The approach and methodology for assessing banks for the various categories are reviewed and agreed by the Technical Committee which is made up of representatives of the banks,” it said.
The release said the time frame for the awards covered all universal banks with published financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2013 and noted that “out of the current number of 28 universal banks, 26 qualify for the awards.”
Fourteen 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.
To underscore the independence of the awards process, the release said:“No universal bank is allowed to provide sponsorship. Instead, non-universal banks and corporate entities offer sponsorship.”
Business World (with notes from graphic)