The two-day event, held on the theme: “Marketing: A Catalyst for Driving Ghana Beyond Aid”, brought together some eminent personalities to deliver papers on selected topics of interest to corporate Ghana.

The 12th edition of the conference offered an opportunity for the institute to impart its professional development programme on the working class of Ghana.

Mr Kojo Mattah, the National President of CIMG, said the “two-day programme was to elevate the discussion onto a new pedestal; and get all of us thinking about what we can all contribute to making the President’s intentions a reality”.

“That is why we have assembled very experienced thought leaders to help us dissect this critical and thought-provoking call by the President,” he said.

The participants, in a discussion held on the last day of the programme, took stakeholders through ways the country could get the ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ agenda right using marketing tools as a driving force.

Mr Bright Ladzekpo, the Chief Executive Officer of PHD Media-Ghana, who spoke on the topic: “Technology/Digital Marketing; A vital ingredient for driving Ghana Beyond Aid”, said technology was a crucial tool to sustaining the government’s agenda.

Ghana Beyond Aid

Mr Ladzekpo said, “Ghana Beyond Aid must mean business and every business must not be local alone but must go global. And it is only technology that can bridge the gap between a local and global space.”

He said the richest businesses in the world were technological businesses and so the richest country in the world should be a technological country.

He said if technology was advanced in the country, there would be minimal unemployment rate.

Mrs Magaret Tachie-Micah, the Managing Consultant at Nest of Ideas Consulting, spoke on the topic: “Ghana Beyond Aid; Getting it right with customer management”.

She said the government’s agenda would be possible if the orientation of the people was changed.

She said ‘Ghana beyond Aid’ required a focus on the customer and managing customer relations well was important to ensuring a successful business.

Mr Kwame Wiafe, the General Manager of Wilmar-Ghana, who also spoke on the topic: “Logistics and channel management; A vehicle for driving Ghana Beyond Aid”, said as a business, it was important to know the channels for marketing, as well as your customers’ behaviour.

He said proper planning was needed to promote and ensure that products got the customer at the time of need. — GNA/GB