Rev. Dr Mrs. Comfort Asare, Director for Department of Social Welfare

Mrs Gifty Tepkor, Head Mistress of South Labone Girls Technical Institute

Staff members and students of the institute

Fellow Ecobankers

Media men and women

Good morning to you all.

I am very pleased to welcome you all to our annual Ecobank Day celebrations today.

Ecobank Day is our flagship annual Corporate and Social Responsibility event and a day on which we ‘give back’ to our local communities, not just here in Ghana, but also in 32 other countries across Africa. We help the vulnerable and deserving members of society and seek to make a real and beneficial difference to them.

Ecobank Day started, 10 years ago, in 2013, so this event provides us with a double celebration as we mark the 10^th anniversary!

Each year we focus on a good and important cause. For the last decade, we supported education for youth, malaria prevention, maternal health, Safe water management, orphanages, non-communicable diseases, and financial inclusion.

For the 10^th anniversary of Ecobank Day, we are proud to start another new three-year campaign: ‘Transforming Africa Through Education’.

We are in an era of rapid technological advances, digitalisation and ‘always-on’ connectivity, which keep changing so rapidly in everyday life, activities and expectations for businesses and individuals. In large part, this is being facilitated by the ready and rapid adoption of smart phones, tablets, etc. which act as the enablers and gateway to digital empowerment.

This makes our Ecobank Day 2023 theme - ‘Excel with Digital Skills’ - so relevant. It is focusing on raising awareness and knowledge about the importance of children and youth having digital skills. It is imperative for them to have deeper and solid grounding in digital skills. Having such skills will be truly life changing for both the youth and children. It will also enable Africa to leapfrog and accelerate its development. We want to see a major ramp up of digital education. We want a Ghana where our children and youth are prepared for the evolving jobs of today and tomorrow.

It will make them more attractive to employers, it will expand their career options, it will equip them with transferable skills, and it will increase their earning potentials.

This is why we have come here today to observe the 2023 Ecobank Day. We will be making a donation to this school to help improve teaching and learning, particularly ICT education.

My colleague Joana, here, will be explaining further the kind of donation we are making to this school and what we are also doing elsewhere in Ghana.

I am immensely proud of the Ecobank family in Ghana, namely Ecobank Ghana, eProcess, EDC, and Pan African Savings & Loans. Ecobank Day would have never been made possible without you, my fellow Ecobankers, who have volunteered your time to enable us make a positive impact in our communities here in Ghana.

I thank you all for your kind attention.