Financial institutions urged to invest in risk management practices

Mr Michael Mensah-Baah, Chief Operating Officer, Absa Bank, Ghana has advised financial institutions to invest in risk management practices to forestall any uncertainties.

He said even though it was difficult to predict the future, measures must be put in place to mitigate any unforeseen problems.

Mr Mensah-Baah said this at a lecture on the theme: "Leveraging Risk Management in Financial Institutions" in Accra and reminded Board of Directors that it had an oversight responsibility to manage a company's risk management framework to function well.

He said it was imperative for management to respect all stakeholders in financial institutions because shareholders were owners of the organization and appointed board members to represent them.

He urged Board of Directors to sanction any management member who failed to execute his or her duty; to serve as deterrent to others as well as preserve the image of the company.

"Everyone in the Organisation is responsible for risk management, it is a chain and starts from board members to management and staff," he said.

He stated that risk management was an event and urged financial institutions to institute a good corporate governance mechanism for survival.

Mr Osei Gyasi, Head of Banking Supervision Unit, Bank of Ghana, launched a book titled: "Corporate Governance for Banks and Specialized Deposit-Taking Institutions making directorship a Competence based Profession".

The book, he said would become a great material to be used for the training of directors of financial institutions in the country.

It incorporates all the financial acts into one umbrella, which would guide financial institutions in managing its operations in an efficient and effective manner.

It also provides insight into the Ghanaian banking crisis and several case studies on financial service.

Mr Gyasi said the book would serve as a reference document for financial institutions, academia, students, banking practitioners and those who wants to acquire knowledge in the area of corporate governance.

Mr Justice Awuku-Sao, the Author said the book entailed sections of the banking Acts 2016, sections of the 2018 guidelines from the Bank of Ghana and aspects of 2019 company Acts that affected all financial directors and international best practice and corporate governance.

He entreated Bank of Ghana to make the book ready for all directors of financial institutions during their training programmes.