Stanbic rules Ghana Club One Hundred,

On a night that Rural Banks almost dominated the ratings for companies in Ghana, Stanbic Bank Ghana Ltd who were recently judged by PriceWaterhouse Coopers as a First Quartile Bank in their 2008 Banking Survey were adjudged the best company in Ghana beating previous holders, Scancom,Ghana Ltd, operators of the MTN Cellular Phone network to second place.
After going through the list for the ratings for the one hundred best performers, judged on the size, growth and profitability of the companies in Ghana’s growing market place, organizers of the event announced Stanbic as the over-all winner in the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre’s Ghana Club One Hundred, 2009 edition.
Saluting the captains of Ghana’s industry, Vice President John Dramani Mahama who was Special Guest of Honour at the awards night disclosed that the GIPC Act, 1994 is being reviewed with a view of sharpening its focus in attracting and retaining the much needed Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
“These actions should be expected in view of the keen competition among developed and developing countries to attract FDIs”, said the Vice President, adding, “The Dynamics for FDI attraction are changing and it has become necessary to adopt new policy responses to elicit increasing levels of FDI, especially in developing countries”.
Mr. John Mahama announced that government, in its bid to improve FDI flows, will continue to focus on measures aimed at reducing obstacles, increasing predictability, promoting consistency, fostering competition and marketing the variety of opportunities this country has to offer.
He also promised government’s readiness to continue to support the centre in the implementation of appropriate reforms and strategies to improve the general business environment in the country.
The Vice President also urged industry players to venture into research in modern Market and consumer behavior, since that is where the solutions to some of their precarious challenges lay.
Minister for Trade and Industry, Hannah Tetteh noted that since job creation is one of the primary needs of the time, government is developing the chapter 2 of the Private Sector Development Strategy which is being done hand in hand with leaders of the industry sector. According to her, government’s efforts to adopt a bottom-up approach to developing the sector, it would not formulate policies without first consulting those the policies affect most.
She said Agriculture and agro-processing are going to be developed as part of this strategy to help employ most of the youth of the country.
She noted that for the much desired macro-economic stability to be achieved, “it behooves both public and private sector to be disciplined so that we do not have to go down this road of macro-instability again”.
Newly appointed Chairman of the GIPC Board, Ishmael Yamson noted that the responsibility to make Ghana competitive is not that of government alone but also for the private sector.
This, he said, can be done through the use of the right calibre of tools, personnel and machinery and technology.
“If the private sector works hand-in-hand with government to make business competitive, it would attract other investors into the country”, he observed.
Mr. Yamson urged all award winners not to rest on their oars but strive harder to make the business environment more and more competitive.
Toyota Ghana Ltd, Kasapreko, UT Financial Services, Ghana Rubber Estates Ltd, C.F.A.O, The Trust Bank, IPMC and Goil came third to tenth in that descending order.
Stanbic also won special awards in the Best Financial Service and Best Ranked categories, while
Best Listed Company went to Fan Milk, Ghana, with Standard Chartered Bank winning the best
in Corporate Social Responsibility.
However, close to 20 Rural Banks were also named as members of Ghana’s most prestigious Industrial club attracting admiration from the Vice President John Mahama who observed, “The Rural Banks seem to be growing into Rural Tigers”.
The Ghana Club 100 is organized annually by the GIPC to determine the best -100 performing companies in the country.
By: (Justice Lee Adoboe) July 27,2009