The Ghana Association of Bankers has appointed Mr. John Awuah as Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Association, and he will eventually take over from the current Chief Executive Officer, Mr. D.K. Mensah, when the latter retires later in the year.
Prior to his appointment, Mr. Awuah was the Managing Partner of Jawuah & Co. Advisors Ltd., a management and financial services consulting firm.
John has an MBA from the Oxford Institute of International Finance (Oxford Brookes University) and is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (UK) and member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Ghana (ICAG).
He has previously worked with Universal Merchant Bank (UMB) as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the bank. John has also held senior leadership positions as Finance Director at GCB Bank, Group Chief Finance Officer at Ecobank Capital, Financial Controller at Barclays Bank of Ghana (now ABSA Bank), Chief Finance Officer at UBA Ghana, and as Finance Business Partner at Standard Chartered Bank Ghana – with industry exposure from Tractor & Equipment Ghana (now Mantrac) and Western Castings Limited.
He brings to the Association a wealth of industry experience and broad knowledge of stakeholder management and optimisation of social capital. In his role, John will lead all strategic initiatives of GAB and champion the Banking Industry’s response to global banking practices, research opportunities, regulatory compliance, and emerging trends in sustainable financial services and financial inclusion efforts of banks in Ghana.
Responding the appointment, Mr. Awuah said: “The practice of banking has evolved; the change has been deep and impacted every aspect of the trade – our job is to navigate this phenomenal change professionally and remain in control. I draw my excitement from the superior service experience that banking customers are enjoying and will continue to benefit from as a result of unimpeded banking evolution globally. At GAB, we will focus on building more inclusive banking with emphasis on technology, collaboration and holistic risk management practices across all our networks and channels”.
The president of GAB, Mr. Alhassan Andani added: “John’s strong knowledge of the banking industry can only be an advantage to the Association. We have every confidence in his ability to proactively coordinate industry efforts and be a strong advocate for not only Banks in Ghana but also the entire financial services sector in the country and beyond. We assure him of our unflinching support”.
