The efforts of the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana (CIMG) to localise its own examination through legislation has now seen the light of day, following the launch of the CIMG Professional Marketing Qualifications exams which will start in September 2021.

The institute, which was established in 1981, did not have legal backing to organise its own examinations and had had to rely on examinations from foreign institutes all these years.

However, following the passage of Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana Act, 2020 (Act 1021) which has been assented to by the President, the institute can now organise its own local examinations.

This is because the Act mandates the CIMG to, among other things, provide training, conduct examinations and award Professional Marketing Certificates in accordance with international best practices to improve the skills and competencies of marketing practitioners and professionals in the country.

Speaking at the launch of the CIMG Professional Marketing Qualifications, the President of CIMG, Dr Daniel Kasser-Tee, said notwithstanding the importance of marketing to a country the CIMG had to pursue the passage of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana Bill for about two decades.

“At a point, we nearly gave up, as the powers that be at the time advised that all business-related professional bodies should come under one umbrella for an omnibus law to guide and regulate their practice.

“With the coming into office of the present administration, the Education Ministry, during their first term, under the able leadership of Dr Matthew Opoku-Prempeh, took it upon themselves to ensure that the Bill was passed,” he stated.

Ambitious project

He said, being a responsible professional group, the institute immediately set in motion an ambitious project to ensure the complete localisation of professional marketing examinations by the close of March 2021.

Dr Kasser-Tee advised all partner universities, who would serve as accredited study centres to show commitment by encouraging as many students as possible to enrol in the programme, in view of the role of marketing in building successful businesses.

“All accredited study centres must consider this launch as the starting point of a very long-term relationship. As marketing is about relationships and not events or transactions. It is about marriage and not mere wedding ceremonies. Let us, therefore, come together to ensure that this marriage works in the interest of mother Ghana,” he stated.

Corporate world

The president of the institute also urged the corporate world to also provide the needed support to ensure that CIMG succeeded in training marketers with the requisite know-how to solve local problems.

“In my days as a marketing student of Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIMG), these are some of the case studies that marketing students were doing; Australian tourism; British rail; Oman Cement Company; Biochemical Enzymes Technology, among others.

“As you can see, these were all deliberate programmes, aimed at getting the best solutions from around the globe to help solve other peoples’ problems in their countries. The little sponsorship you give to CIMG, whether cash or kind, will go a long way to help us defray the cost of this programme.

“We have commissioned people from within our ranks to write course manuals for each of the 38 courses under the CIMG professional marketing programme. Each of them costs between GH¢25,000 and GH¢30,000, respectively, depending on the level. Captains of industry and the many chief marketing officers around should step forward and sponsor these manuals, even if you are only placing adverts in them. Help us today for a better tomorrow. This way, you would have contributed immensely towards making history in the marketing arena,” he explained.