CIMG to regulate its own examinations

A BILL to regulate the conduct of marketing practitioners in the country is currently before Cabinet.
The Marketing Bill, which is expected to be passed at the first sitting of Parliament in 2011, would empower the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana (CIMG) to set up and regulate its own examinations and standard practice.
“The passage of the Bill would also create an avenue for a lot more of our citizens and school leavers to get professional qualifications and save the nation from spending significant amounts of foreign exchange as external examination fees,” the Deputy Education Minister (Tertiary), Dr Joseph S. Annan, said at the 21st Presidential Ball and the 11th closing ceremony of the CIMG executive school at the weekend.
The function which was held on the theme, “Global Competitiveness: A Case For Cutting Edge Marketing in Ghana”, assembled renowned marketing personalities including the reigning CIMG Marketing Man of the Year and immediate past Managing Director of the Graphic Communications Group Limited, Mr Ibrahim Awal; a former Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) and former President of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Mr Tony Oteng-Gyasi.
Dr Annan who acknowledged the feat the CIMG had chalked up over the years, noted that with the major steps the institute had taken towards realising its aim, particularly the construction of a permanent structure to house its school and offices, the passage of the bill was a guarantee for expediting the ongoing project.
“For over a decade now, the CIMG has dedicated itself and provided leadership in the promotion of the study and practice of modern marketing techniques. I, therefore, wish to acknowledge it for taking this bold and worthwhile initiative,” he said.
In its quest to promote excellence and professionalism in the marketing practice, Dr Annan urged the management of the institute to go a step further and be proactive in its dealings and asked them to come out with useful suggestions that could help the government to grapple with the many challenges it faced.
He further urged the management to follow up students who graduated from the institute in order to monitor their progress and give them the necessary advice and re-training.
The National President of the CIMG, Mrs Josephine Okutu, underscored the need for marketers to be conscious of prevailing international transactions which required planning with meticulous attention to global and socio-economic differences in products and services.
She called on marketers in the current global competitive environment to be culturally sensitive since doing business the ‘French way’ differed substantially from doing same the ‘Japanese or English way’. He recalled a USAID report on Africa’s competitiveness which called for increased access to financial services for investment and trade.
She also said that inadequate infrastructure was another negative factor of growth and global competitiveness in Ghana and that in many African countries the lack of affordable and reliable electricity supply was cited as a major constraint in doing business.
On that score, Mrs Okutu averred that the CIMG was relentlessly pursuing the agenda of remaining at the forefront of building capacities in trade as it pursued its objective of putting up a modern structure conducive for learning and research facilities to house its secretariat.
The Executive Director of the CIMG, Mr Kwabena Agyekum, in a report said the institute would begin to concurrently ran CIMG and CIM (UK) examinations by June 2011 to give meaning to the institute’s vision of ‘thinking global’.
Among the institute’s achievements he mentioned were meeting its target to perform above the national average and the renewal of its accreditation from January 2011 to December 2012 by the CIM Moorhall in the United Kingdom.
The Presidential Ball marks the last major function of Mrs Okutu as she ends her four-year tenure of office and was also used to induct 61 new members into the CIMG.