Guinness Ghana Breweries Ltd (GGBL) last week took 400 senior managers and bartenders in Kumasi and Accra through its Master Bar Academy (MBA) programme. Under the theme ‘Raising the bar behind the bar’, the programme is aimed at empowering key frontline managers to grow their businesses, transform their service delivery and promote the responsible consumption of alcohol in their outlets. Participants were taken through world class bartending, customer service, counterfeit product detection and promotion of responsible drinking. They were also given an immersive spirits training experience and tutored on the mixing of favourite cocktails. Explaining the need for the sessions, the Corporate Relations Director of GGBL Preba Arkaah Greenstreet said “We recognize that bar tenders and managers support our growth ambitions and are critical in creating a positive role for alcohol [consumption] in the Ghanaian society.” “They are the frontliners in promoting responsible drinking and supporting consumers to make informed choices at the point of sale. Through our bespoke Master Bar Academy, we empower and support these managers and their outlets to transform their service delivery and prevent alcohol abuse,” she stated. A participant at the training, Mr. Alfred Gaisey who is a manager of +233 - a premium outlet in Accra- said “This is the first time my team and I are participating in the MBA programme and I must admit it is a fantastic initiative by GGBL – one that I’ll highly recommend to all managers in the hospitality industry.” “I believe we are leaving this session greatly informed to deliver even better services to our consumers, growing our business and looking out for our consumers by encouraging and supporting them to drink responsibly". GGBL has over the years trained over 1,000 senior managers and bar tenders from selected premium outlets across the Ashanti, Western and Greater Accra regions in the ‘MBA’ and World of Spirits programme since 2011. This is part of Diageo PLC’s ambition to roll out these programmes to 10,000 managers and bartenders across Africa.