An eleven-member Governing Council of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana (CIMG) was, on Monday, inaugurated into office for a three-year term.  

The event took place at the conference room of the Ministry of Education, where the sector minister, who also doubles as Member of Parliament for Bosomtwe Constituency, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum administered an Oath of Office and Oath of Secrecy to the new council members. 

In his opening remarks at the inauguration, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum intimated that marketing had a critical role to play in the socio-economic development of the country and, as such, its value must not be taken for granted.  

“There should be a new paradigm shift, that would put marketing at the centre of the country’s development agenda to propel growth, as the role of marketing is so critical to national development” Dr Osei Adutwum said.

In view of the above, the Minister informed the new Council that “With the Senior High School curriculum being worked on, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NACCA) will be consulting you to really get marketing inputs to be incorporated in it”.

This, he indicated, will be a practical way to deepen marketing theory and equip students at all levels with the proper understanding of marketing and how marketing will help them build and manage successful business after school.

He charged the council to work at deepening the relevance of marketing in Ghana.

In his acceptance remarks, the National President of CIMG, Dr Daniel Kasser Tee, promised that the new Council will, among other things, uphold the good values of the institute at all times.

“We will endeavour to ensure that CIMG is governed and managed in accordance with sound corporate governance practices for improved performance,” he assured.

He also pledged the services of CIMG to public and civil service organisations that require marketing support, declaring that “our readiness to help market nation Ghana remains unflinchingly strong as we open our doors to any MMDA and the larger public services to support them improve performance efficiency.”

Dr Kasser Tee commended the President of the Republic and the Minister for his ministry’s untiring efforts at getting Act 1021 passed and assented to in record time. He enumerated some of the success stories of CIMG, since the Bill was passed into Law.

On research, Dr Kasser Tee said: “CIMG has successfully conducted a customer satisfaction and loyalty study, the outcome of which led to the launch of Ghana’s first Customer Satisfaction Index for the banking industry of Ghana, under the blessing of the Bank of Ghana and the Ghana Association of Banks. The second report is expected to the released later in the year, which will cover 4 industries.”

He further indicated that plans were far advanced for CIMG to introduce a novel Regional Brand Index report for Ghana. Data, he said, will be collected across the nation for the study, which has a great potential to further market Ghana to the wider world in the areas of Tourism, Culture, Governance, Peace and Security, Investment potentials, Natural Environment and Natural resources, Trade, etc.

“We mounted the first examinations of the professional marketing qualifications in December last year and released the results in February 2022. It has been a huge success story, with excellent pass rates at the intermediate stages. It is our hope that similar performances would be recorded, when our students take their exams at the strategic levels in June and December this year, which will enable us to award the Professional Marketer Certificate for the first time in Ghana”, added Dr Tee. 

Concluding his remarks, the National President urged everyone, both marketing and non-marketing professionals, to work together to ensure that the marketing philosophy permeates every sphere of life, particularly, within the public and civil service architecture of Ghana.

Also at the ceremony was a Patron and Fellow, and one time President of CIMG, Professor Stephen Adei, who reminded the Marketers that: “As you all know, Marketing is not propaganda, good marketing requires you all to help communicate the good sides of your products, corporate institutions and the nation Ghana at large. You must not allow non-marketing people to destroy brands on the back of propaganda”.

He, therefore, urged the council to work hard to uplift the image of CIMG and Ghana, as a nation brand.

Members of the new council are the National President, Dr Daniel Kasser Tee, the National Vice-President, Mr Theodore Osae, the National Secretary, Mr Franklin Sowa, and the National Treasurer, Mr Alfred Boyan forming the National Executive team.

Other members of the new council are Ms Ama Amoah, Mrs Hilda Peasah, Mr Kwasi Kyere, the Registrar/CEO of CIMG, Mr Kwabena Agyekum, the immediate past president of CIMG, Mr Kojo Mattah, a representative of the Ministry of Education, Ms Angela Affran and a representative of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Mr Kofi Addo.