FIRST ALLIED, one of Ghana’s leading Savings & Loans companies has received the International Star for Leadership In Quality (ISLQ) Gold Award in Paris, France early this month. “FIRST ALLIED was singularly honored for 16 years of exemplary performance in financial product innovation and quality service delivery in the micro, small and medium enterprise (SME) sector in Ghana,” a statement from the company said. The impressive Awards ceremony, which saw 74 companies and institutions from all over the world receive awards for leadership in quality, was organized by the internationally acclaimed Business Initiative Directions (BID) of Spain. The International Star for Leadership In Quality (ISLQ) Award is designed to recognize outstanding companies and leaders in the business world, who achieve excellence in quality delivery to their clients based on the QC100 Total Quality Management Model. In a letter accompanying the conferment of the GOLD Award on First Allied, President of ISLQ Awards, Dr. Alfonso Casal indicated that the process leading to selecting First Allied was vigorous and span a period of ten months. He said companies and organizations from 118 countries were brought together in the cities of Paris, London, Madrid, Geneva, Frankfurt and New York; during which leaders and experts in quality and excellence submitted their votes for the candidacy of First Allied for the Award. “Working in a difficult economic environment where access to credit is extremely challenging for micro and small businesses, First Allied was noted to have kept faith with its customers, without diminishing its standards in product quality and service delivery,” the statement. It noted that the company’s unwavering commitment to alleviating poverty and improving income levels among the poor in Ghana came up for special mention, saying that the organizers had noticed that FIRST ALLIED had continued to innovate around product and service quality. The organizers expressed the hope that the award will spur FIRST ALLIED on to greater heights in their quality delivery to their customers. Chairman of FIRST ALLIED, Nana Yaw Oduro thanked the Almighty God for the honor done the company and pledged its continued commitment to the alleviation of poverty through a deepening engagement with the poor and disadvantaged in society. He also thanked all customers, management and staff of the institutions without whom FIRST ALLIED could not have received this prestigious recognition and honor. Head of Risk and Monitoring at FIRST ALLIED, Yaw Korankye Antwi told ADOMBUSINESS for the past 16 years, FIRST ALLIED have supported the micro and small scale sector of Ghana, providing loans and advisory services to over 120,000 SMEs in mainly trade, as well as imports and exports. The company’s SME loan portfolio is currently more than GHC60million.