The Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana (CIMG) has, over the past few months, been holding consultative meetings with stakeholders, over the localisation of professional marketing examinations and what this means for the country.

These series of engagements have become necessary, following the passage of the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana Act, 2020 (Act 1021).

It will be recalled that the Parliament of Ghana passed the Marketing Bill on June 4, 2020, and subsequently assented to by the President of Ghana on August 13, 2020.

The Act gives CIMG the mandate to, among other things, set marketing standards, regulate professional marketing practice, as well as provide training and conduct examinations.

In a special release to the media, the National President of CIMG, Dr Daniel Kasser Tee, intimated that; The Institute has set up a special committee to drive the localisation agenda and also plan the official launch of the Chartered Marketer brand in Ghana.

“We have adopted the collaborative approach of holding discussions with key stakeholders to afford us the opportunity of learning from other institutions, with similar mandates, that have threaded this path in the past.

"We have to work with all institutions that currently practice any forms of marketing to help standardise and bring their operations under regulation, in line with the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana Act, 2020 (Act 1021).”

“We are also seeking collaborations with some existing regulatory bodies that are currently overseeing and providing regulation for Marketing practice to ensure things are tighter and more professional.

"We have, accordingly, segmented our stakeholders into about 4 homogeneous groups, according to the type of institution, their legal mandate and how their activities impinge on the practice of marketing and further promotes the interest of Ghana,” he said.

Elaborating on the different segments of stakeholders, the Chief Executive Officer of CIMG, Kwabena Agyekum said, "The first group comprises local and international professional institutes and institutions like the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana (ICAG), Chartered Institute of Bankers (CIB), Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM UK), British Council, etc."

The CIMG, he said, has been engaging these bodies to explore hands-holdings opportunities, aimed at acquiring the needed knowledge and expertise to help the Institute implement its localisation programmes seamlessly.

The second group involves Authorities (Vice Chancellors/Rectors, Deans and Heads of Marketing Departments) at the various traditional and technical Universities across Ghana with whom the CIMG intends to partner as tuition centres for the yet to be launched CIMG professional qualifications, including the possibility of awarding dual-qualifications, for the first time in Ghana.

Two main state regulatory bodies, the Food and Drug Authority (FDA) and Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), are in the third category. This group also includes the Institute of Public Relations (IPR), Advertising Association of Ghana (AAG) which, the CIMG sees as very relevant in helping us craft the necessary Legislative Instrument (LI) for guiding the setting of marketing standards.

Mr Agyekum finally mentioned that the CIMG will be holding special discussions with the Public Service Commission and Ghana Employers Association.

“We will be discussing the role of marketing in the public sector of Ghana, particularly within the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies as well as the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies.

"The Foreign Affairs Ministry will also be engaged on the need to engage the services of Marketers for promoting Ghana”.

On his part, the Coordinator of the CIMG Localisation and Chartered Marketer launch Committee, Adam Sulley, said, “the Institute will continue to engage most of these organisations, the media and the general public to ensure that the Ghana market is ready to embrace the local Professional Marketing Qualifications, which will be launched in the first quarter of 2021.”