The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has been honoured at the seventh Central Banking Awards.

The Governor of the BoG, Dr Ernest Addison received the Central Bank of Year award on behalf of the bank.

The organisers of the award ceremony, Central Banking was joined by representatives of the winners of the Central Banking Awards 2020 to celebrate their achievements during a virtual awards presentation published Tuesday, October 13, 2020.

The annual Central Banking Awards, now in their seventh year, recognises excellence in the central banking community.

The formal presentation of the awards was made to the governors and business-line heads of central banks and market practitioners, as well as to Otmar Issing, winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award, by Christopher Jeffery, editor-in-chief and chairman of the Central Banking Awards Committee.

The Central Banking Awards trophies, made of sustainable materials, were presented at a virtual ceremony this year after Central Banking’s flagship March events were twice-postponed.

Those events – including National Asset-Liability Management Global Virtual and FinTech & RegTech Virtual Supervisory Summit, as well as modules specifically focused on areas such as communication and currency management – dubbed Central Banking week, will now take place via video conference from October 26–29.

Many award-winners will participate in Central Banking’s virtual events in late October, which will include a ‘fireside chat’ with founding European Central Bank chief economist and director Otmar Issing.

Below is a copy of the speech read by Governor Dr Ernest Addison at the awards ceremony

BANK OF GHANA – CENTRAL BANK OF THE YEAR AWARD
ACCEPTANCE SPEECH By GOVERNOR DR. ERNEST ADDISON

Members of the Central Banking Team,
Fellow Award Recipients,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen.

It is a great privilege for the Bank of Ghana to be named the Central Bank of the Year, and I thank the team at Central Banking for the honour done us.

This award reflects our vision to build a central bank of excellence that is well-respected by stakeholders, and further strengthens our resolve to continue to implement sound monetary and financial sector policies.

The successful execution of our Monetary Policy and the Financial sector reforms and subsequent turnaround in the economy, which this Award duly recognises, has been due to the hard work of the whole Bank of Ghana team comprising Management, the Board and staff.

Let me mention the support I got from my very able and efficient deputies, and heads of departments. The Bank also received invaluable support from the Monetary Policy Committee, and other key collaborative institutions, including the Ministry of Finance and the Economic Management Team, in the pursuit of its policies and programmes.

It is fair to say that the three years of policy reform has firmly positioned Ghana’s economy to withstand the headwinds arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tight monetary policy stance helped reduced inflation significantly and maintained in single digits and well within the Banks target range, and a well anchored exchange rate stability.

We also successfully concluded three years of banking sector reforms, which saw an increase in the minimum capital requirements, clean-up of the financial sector by revoking licences of weak and insolvent institutions, and a revamp of the regulatory framework to stabilise and strengthen the
sector.

Our banks are now well capitalised, liquid, solvent, and resilient to liquidity and credit risk and well positioned to support Ghana’s economic
growth agenda.

On this note, and with humility and profound gratitude, I accept this award on behalf of the Board, Management, and Staff of the Bank of Ghana.

Thank you all for sharing in the vision to ensuring macroeconomic stability and establish a stable, sound, and resilient banking sector to support the country’s growth and development agenda.

I am hopeful that we will continue on this path and consolidate the far-reaching gains of macroeconomic and financial stability in Ghana.

Thank you very much.

Below is a list of the award winners

Advisory services – Deloitte
Payment services – Swift
Payments and market infrastructure development – European Central Bank
Financial market infrastructure services – Bloomberg
Currency services – Note Printing Australia
Currency manager – Bank of Mexico
Data services – Swift
Specialised lending initiative – BNP Paribas Securities Services
Green initiative – NGFS
Global markets – HSBC
Collateral management services – National Bank of Georgia/Montran
Treasury systems initiative – Calypso
Custody initiative – Euroclear
Risk manager – Central Bank of Brazil
Innovation in reserve management – BlackRock
Asset manager – Amundi
Reserve manager – Swiss National Bank
Communications initiative – Bank of Jamaica
Transparency award – Reserve Bank of New Zealand
Economics in central banking – Matteo Maggiori, Brent Neiman and Jesse Schreger
Initiative of the year – Bank of Thailand’s Stakeholder Engagement Programme
Website – Central Bank of Brazil
Governor of the year – Mark Carney
Central bank of the year – Bank of Ghana
Lifetime achievement award – Otmar Issing