Three of Ghana’s experienced bankers were honoured with Lifetime Achievement Awards last Saturday at the Ghana Banking Awards held at the Trade Fair Centre, La, Accra. Mrs. Stephanie Baeta-Ansah, founding Managing Director of HFC bank, Dr. Kobina Quansah, first Ghanaian Managing Director of Barclays Bank and Mr. J.S Addo, former Governor of Bank of Ghana received the honours. The award was to recognize their astute leadership and pioneering roles in the banking industry over the last 30 years. Dr. Kobina Quansah's rise to the top begun on an unceremonial note - as a messenger at Barclays Bank in 1968. He rose steadily from this position until he was appointed Managing Director in 1999 – the first Ghanaian to occupy this position. He recounted how he inherited a bank with enormous potential but ranked 4th in profit making. He described the bank then as a “sleeping giant” and a “slumbering elephant”. He revealed how he ‘trawled’ the human resource market to hire an ambitious group of banking professionals. He sent them overseas to imprint the “ethos” of Barclays Bank Ghana in their minds. He said today, many top managers in large banks were staff he groomed and exposed to the best of banking practices whiles at Barclays. Mrs. Stephanie Baeta-Ansah said she was “really touched” by the honour. A trained lawyer, she said, she was never really interested in pursuing a banking career until she was “kicked upstairs in 1979”. Realizing the huge knowledge gap, she spent her nights studying banking. The World Bank appointed her to manage Ghana’s first mortgage scheme- Home Finance Company. She said that it was at a time when the Bank “couldn’t find men”. “Give it to me, I will do it”, she offered. Today, she says her greatest pride is when she meets families who benefitted from the company’s mortgage scheme. “People said all sort of things when the scheme started” she said and challenged anyone who has been worse off because of the scheme to show up. With the history of a Home finance Company, HFC Bank has been very instrumental in the development of the mortgage industry in Ghana and continues to be the number one home loan provider in the country. These two award winners had something to say about the third winner – Mr. J.S Addo. He was their mentor during their days as bankers. Mr John Saka Addo was the governor of the Bank of Ghana during the difficult times of Ghana’s Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) in 1990’s. He is a former Deputy Governor (1968 to 1973) and later, Governor of the Bank of Ghana from 1983 to 1987. He is also a former Managing Director and Chairman of National Investment Bank (NIB). He is a founding member of Prudential Bank Limited. His consultancy firm, J.S. Addo Consultants Limited, did the study for the establishment of Ecobank Ghana and this is how he became the first Chairman of that Bank. J.S Addo made a passionate plea to the bankers. He called on them to do more for the export sector – a sector no bank won an award in. He said financing the export sector helps improve Ghana's middle-income position status. The man has a Non-Governmental Organisation, Old Accra Conservation and Development Association (OACADA). It goes to show his deep cultural roots. The NGO is very much involved in the renovation of heritage sites in Accra including buildings such as the Usher Fort Prison. The former governor revealed another common denominator among the three award winners - they were all school mates at Achimota School.