The Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Elsie Addo Awadzi, has been conferred with the Ghana Women of Excellence Award for her contribution to the economic development of Ghana and other IMF member countries, in the areas of Public Financial Management and Fiscal Responsibility.
 
The 5th Ghana Women of Excellence Awards was organised by Top Brass Ghana and held under the auspices of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection.
 
The awards ceremony is part of the 2020 International Women’s Day celebrations, which is being marked under the theme: “Empowering the Ghanaian Woman for National Development”.
 
A citation that accompanied the award reads as follows:
 
Elsie Addo Awadzi was appointed 2nd Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana by H. E. the President of the Republic in February, 2018. Significantly, she is the only second woman to be appointed Deputy Governor in the Bank of Ghana’s 62 year history.
 
She obtained an LL.M. in International Business and Economic Law from the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington. D.C. and a post-graduate Qualifying Certificate in Law from the Ghana School of Law. She also holds an M.B.A in Finance and LL.B from the University of Ghana.
 
Elsie was called to the Ghana Bar in April 1996 and thereafter worked in private law practice with major law firms in Ghana and went on to found a boutique corporate finance and investment law firm which she managed for ten years before it was acquired.
 
Before her appointment as Deputy Governor, Elsie was Senior Counsel of the Financial and Fiscal Law Unit of the Legal Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) based in Washington D.C. In that role, she travelled widely, working with IMF member countries in all regions of the world to assess the stability of their financial systems, strengthen financial regulatory and supervisory frameworks and manage financial crises.
 
Elsie also assisted several IMF member countries to strengthen their legal and institutional frameworks to ensure more robust public financial management, public debt management and fiscal responsibility in the context of IMF surveillance, lending, and technical assistance.
 
During her six-year tenure with the IMF, Elsie served as Course Director and Trainer at several IMF regional technical training programmes for senior officials of Central Banks, supervisory agencies and Finance Ministries in Asia, Europe, and sub-Saharan Africa.
 
Prior to joining the IMF in 2012, Elsie was a two-term Commissioner of Ghana’s Securities and Exchange Commission and in that role, she was actively involved in the formulation of policies and rules to regulate the capital market. She also worked on several key financial sector legal reforms in Ghana and other countries in Africa and served briefly as a Senior Treasury Dealer at Barclays Bank Ghana Limited. 
 
As Deputy Governor, Elsie’s responsibilities span the Bank of Ghana’s financial regulatory and supervisory functions, among others. She is a member of the Bank of Ghana’s Board of Directors and serves as a member of the Central Bank’s statutory Monetary Policy Committee as well as a member of the Financial Stability Council established recently by H. E. the President.
 
She has several international publications to her credit on financial regulation and crises management, debt management and corporate governance, among others, and she is passionate about strengthening governance and institutions to support equitable and inclusive socio-economic development.
 
In recognition of her outstanding contribution to the economic development of Ghana and other IMF member countries in the areas of Public Financial Management and Fiscal Responsibility, this Ghana Women of Excellence Award is conferred on Mrs. Elsie Addo Awadzi.