Stanbic Bank Ghana ranked topmost of the 2009 Ghana Club 100, breaking Scancom’s stranglehold at the awards held Friday night.

The bank dislodged Scancom Ghana limited, operators of MTN, which has dominated the first position on the list of Ghana’s most important companies for some considerably time.

Scancom slipped to second position at the awards ceremony held at the Banquet Hall of the State House in Accra.

In this year’s rankings, calculated based on the companies’ size, growth and profitability, Toyota Ghana Ltd., Kasapreko and UT Financial Services came third, fourth and fifth respectively.

The Ghana Club 100, is a programme designed by the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) to identify and award Ghana’s best 100 companies according a certain criteria.

The Awards saw new entrants such as IPMC and Comet properties Ltd doing extremely well.

IPMC took the ninth position and was adjudged the best company in the education category.

Standard Chartered Bank took a special award for best company in corporate social responsibility.

Rural banks swept many awards at this year’s ceremony.

Government committed

The Special Guest of Honour, Vice-President John Dramani Mahama was full of praise for the organizers of the awards and award winners.

He assured businesses in Ghana that the government will implement appropriate policies to reform and improve the business environment in Ghana.

Mr John Mahama said the government was not aversed to calls to use tariff and non-tariff measures to protect local businesses in the country.

He however asserted that government in its bid to protect and facilitate local production will not encourage mediocrity.

According to him, while industry has often over-flogged difficulties in accessing credit, businesses should recognize that serious problems remain in the areas of research into modern market and consumer behaviour.

He was optimistic that inflation will come down to about 14 per cent at the end of the year and further down to a single digit by next year to make the environment predictable for businesses to plan adequately.

In an apparent response to complaints of ‘big brother’ attitude by government, Trade and Industry Minister, Hanna Tetteh said “we cannot formulate policies for you without first consulting you.”

She said the government was committed to adopting a bottom-up approach as it seeks to foster partnership with the private sector.

“You must have confidence in this government,” she stated.


Story by Malik Abass Daabu/Myjoyonline/Ghana