The award is also in recognition of her role in shaping Public Financial Management and Fiscal Responsibility in other International Monetary Fund (IMF) member countries.

The award was conferred on the second Deputy Governor at the Ghana Women of Excellence Awards organised by Top Brass Ghana on the theme: “Empowering the Ghanaian Woman for National Development” as part of activities marking the 2020 International Women’s Day celebrations.

Portions of the citation that accompanied the award read, “Elsie Addo Awadzi was appointed 2nd Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana by the President of the Republic in February, 2018”.

“Significantly, she is the only second woman to be appointed Deputy Governor in the Bank of Ghana’s 62-year history”.

“She has several international publications to her credit on financial regulation and crises management, debt management and corporate governance, among others, and she is passionate about strengthening governance and institutions to support equitable and inclusive socio-economic development”.

Economic development

“In recognition of her outstanding contribution to the economic development of Ghana and other IMF-member countries in the areas of Public Financial Management and Fiscal Responsibility, this Ghana Women of Excellence Award is conferred on Mrs Elsie Addo Awadzi”, the citation stated.

Elsie, who is a former Senior Counsel of the Financial and Fiscal Law Unit of the Legal Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), was also heralded for her work in areas of Public Financial Management and Fiscal Responsibility in other IMF-member countries.

She obtained an LL.M. in International Business and Economic Law from the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington. D.C. and a post-graduate Qualifying Certificate in Law from the Ghana School of Law. She also holds an MBA in Finance and an LL.B from the University of Ghana.

Law practice

Elsie was called to the Ghana Bar in April 1996 and later worked in private law practice with major law firms in Ghana and went onto be a founder of a boutique corporate finance and investment law firm which she managed for ten years before it was acquired.

Before her appointment as Deputy Governor, Elsie was Senior Counsel of the Financial and Fiscal Law Unit of the Legal Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) based in Washington D.C. In that role, she travelled widely, working with IMF-member countries in all regions of the world to assess the stability of their financial systems, strengthen financial regulatory and supervisory frameworks and manage financial crises.

IMF journey

During her six-year tenure with the IMF, Elsie served as Course Director and Trainer at several IMF regional technical training programmes for senior officials of Central Banks, supervisory agencies and Finance Ministries in Asia, Europe and sub-Saharan Africa.
Prior to joining the IMF in 2012, Elsie was a two-term Commissioner of Ghana’s Securities and Exchange Commission and in that role, she was actively involved in the formulation of policies and rules to regulate the capital market.

Legal reforms

She also worked on several key financial sector legal reforms in Ghana and other countries in Africa and served briefly as a Senior Treasury Dealer at Barclays Bank Ghana Limited.

She has several international publications to her credit on financial regulation and crises management, debt management and corporate governance, among others, and she is passionate about strengthening governance and institutions to support equitable and inclusive socio-economic development.

Mrs Awadzi is also a trainer who had in the past offered some training courses for stock markets analysts and journalists, especially the members of the Journalists for Business Advocacy.