President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has given assent to the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana Act.

The President signed the act into law on Thursday August 13, 2020, approximately two months after the parliament of Ghana passed it after nearly two decades of delays.

It will be recalled that the Parliament of Ghana, on June 4, 2020, passed the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana Bill, 2019, after the third reading, on the floor of Parliament.

The new law, Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana Act, 2020 (Act 1021), empowers the Institute to; set standards for the practice of marketing; and to regulate the practice of the marketing profession in the country.

To achieve these noble objectives, the act further provides 11 functions of the Institute as follows:

1. Provide training and conduct examinations in accordance with international best practice to improve the skills and competencies of all those working in and aspiring to work in marketing;

2. Set the agenda for the practice of marketing;

3. Promote the role and value of marketing as a critical tool for business development;

4. Support government in the development of policy and regulation of marketing activities;

5. Advocate responsible and ethical marketing practice for marketers and businesses in general;

6. Conduct innovative marketing research;

7. Conduct and provide for the conduct of qualifying examinations for membership;

8. Award professional certificates;

9. Develop best practice and thought leadership programmes;

10. Promote marketing as a leading career path and employment choice for future generations; and

11. Perform any other function that is ancillary to the object of the Institute.

In a release to the media, the National President of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana (CIMG), Dr Daniel Kasser Tee said; “We welcome this as the best news ever, for the marketing community in Ghana. We have been pursuing this act for about 2 decades, and to think that we got both the Parliamentary approval and Presidential assent, within 8 weeks, is humbling and refreshing. I, on behalf of the Governing Council and entire membership of the Institute, thank H.E. the President of the Republic for making this a reality in his first term of office”.

He assured the President that the Institute will immediately double up its efforts at rolling out the localisation of examinations agenda in order to bring relief to the many Ghanaian students who desire to pursue professional marketing courses but cannot afford the cost involved.

This will minimize the demand for hard currencies, especially the Pound Sterling, for the payment of examination fees and subscriptions to the United Kingdom, where most professional marketing students currently pursue their studies.

Giving details on this, Dr Kasser Tee indicated that CIMG has already started discussions with all Public Universities (both the Traditional and Technical universities) aimed at forging collaborations and partnerships.

In these discussions, we intend to make these Universities Tuition Centres for the professional marketing examinations. The second phase of the discussions is to explore the possibility of fusing the professional marketing courses into the academic programmes of the Universities.

This will enable students acquire dual qualifications (academic degrees and professional certificates) by the time they complete their Bachelors or Masters Degrees, as pertains elsewhere in international markets.

We have put together a special localisation committee, led by Mr Adam Sulley, a Chartered Marketer and Lecturer. We intend to launch the local examinations alongside the prestigious Chartered Marketer brand in the first quarter of 2021 and start the first examinations in June or September the same year.

On research and advocacy, Dr Kasser Tee said; “We are currently working with our research team to conduct studies on various issues of marketing and national interest. In the coming days, we will be outdooring our first research report conducted to gauge the effects of COVID-19 on marketing practitioners and selected marketing organisations. We are also in talks with industry associations to launch the first ever survey that will measure the levels of service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty among customers in selected regulated industries, such as; Banking, Insurance, Hospitality, Higher Education, etc. We are currently in talks with the Ghana Association of Bankers and the Ghana Insurers Association to kick start this in earnest."

Watch out for the launch of the CIMG Customer Satisfaction Index (CIMG-CSI) soon. It is our desire that when launched, the CIMG-CSI will engender healthier competition among industry players and will further advance the interests of consumers”.

On his part, the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the CIMG, Mr Kwabena Akuamoah Agyekum said; “For effective delivery of the mandate given us under this act, the CIMG is holding discussions with various regulatory bodies, such as the National Accreditation Board (NAB), the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), etc on areas of mutual interest for tighter collaborations to promote responsible and ethical marketing practices in ways that protect the Ghanaian consumer always”.

The elated CEO, once again, thanked the Cabinet of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the Parliament of Ghana and the Ministry of Education for the Act.

He singled out Hon. Hajia Alima Mahama, who chaired the cabinet sub-committee, Hon. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the Majority Leader of Parliament and Hon. Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the Minister of Education (who promoted and shepherded the bill), for special mention.