Prof Omane-Antwi honoured with Life Time Achievement Award

The former president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana, Prof Kwame Boasiako Omane-Antwi has charged accounting professionals to have the fear of God in them in order to be able to live up to the ethics of the profession.

Aside from the fear of God, Prof Omane-Antwi believes that continuous training will enable practitioners build up skills and become abreast with the various changes in the financial market.

Prof Omane-Antwi spoke to Graphic Online shortly after he was decorated with the prestigious Life Time Achievement Award at the 4th edition of the Ghana Financial Innovation Awards 2018, held at the Movenpick Ambassador Hotel in Accra.

“For accountancy profession you need to have what is called the core, other than that you will find yourself in an area that if you are not very careful you will be tempted to do things that are unwarranted.

Therefore, for one to become a good accountant, you must have Christ in you. It is so important because if Christ is in you and the Holy Ghost is in you as an accountant, you will be able to live up to the ethics of the profession. Then these corruption, fraud and other vices associated with the profession will end,” he said.

On training, the former Board Chairman of the Graphic Communications Group Limited said: “Any good accountant must be worth your sort so training is so much important. There are lots of changes in the financial market and sometimes accountant fail because of lack of training so they should never stop training. They should build up skills and once they have those skills they will be able to overcome many of these challenges that confront them and help management to take the right decisions.”

Dedication

I am happy that at my age 67, the organisers of this award found it worthy to honour me. It is a great joy for me and I want to thank God for this award as well as the organisers. I personally, want to dedicate this award to my wife – Victoria Omane Antwi because she has been a strong pillar in my life during the period that I was studying in the UK and back home during the revolution time.

This award will be an encouragement to the young accountants that are coming up because the future is in their hands and I believe that with this kind of recognition they will also work hard to get to this level as we develop this country.

The Award

The award is in recognition of Prof Omane-Antwi’s outstanding service in commerce and public practice in Ghana, Liberia, the UK and USA. It is also to acknowledge his remarkable innovation, tireless efforts and contribution to the financial sector as demonstrated during his tenure as head of professional bodies which include the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana (ICAG), THE Institute of Directors, Ghana (from 2006 to 2008) and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), Ghana.

The honour also recognized his immense contribution to the industry on the global stage, having consulted for international organisations on alternative livelihood projects such as the World Bank, DFID in the UK and Golden Star Resources Limited, a United States mining company.

It is also for his rich diversity and experience in education having taught for 39-years as a lecturer in Accounting, Finance, Auditing and Management at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, University of Cape Coast, University of Education, Winneba and Kumasi Technical University.

Other awardees

The event, organised by Instinct Wave, saw 35 personalities and institutions being honoured for their diverse contributions to the success of the financial sector.

In the individual awards and special recognition category, Antoinette Kwofie of Barclays Bank was adjudged Woman Chief Finance Officer (CFO) of the Year while Franklin Beechem Baiden of Hollard Insurance won the CFO of the Year (Insurance).

Others were the Chief Finance Officer of MTN Modupe Kadiri (CFO of the Year: Telecom), Vipul Bhardwaj of Fabrimetal (CFO of the Year: Manufacturing), Belinda of Glico Life Insurance (Pension CFO of the Year), Manda R Kumar of Melcom (CFO of the Year: Retail) and Edward Botchway of Ecobank (CFO of the Year: Banking).

The rest were Joana Mensah (Risk Management Personality of the Year) Dr Francis Sapara Grant, CEO of Glico Pensions (Pension CEO of the Year), General Manager of Dun and Bradstreet, Adewale Atobatele (Credit Burea CEO of the Year), CEO of Ecobank, Mr Daniel Sackey (Finance CEO of the Year) and MD of Universal Merchant Bank, John Awuah (Financial Personality of the Year).

The well-attended event saw Mobile Telecommunication Network (MTN) winning six awards, the highest of the night, including the Finance Innovation Award, Private Sector Loan Syndication, Innovation in Treasury, Excellence in Internal Audit and Finance team of the Year.

Team awards

The Glico Life Insurance won gold in the Finance Team of the Year Insurance award followed by Hollard Insurance and Barclays Bank which won silver and bronze respectively.

Others were Ecobank (Finance Team of the Year, Banking), Melcom (Finance Team of the Year, Retail), Melcom (Internal Audit Team of the Year, Retail), Barclays Bank (Excellence in Financial Reporting and Accountabilty) and UMB (Customer Experience Award).

Opportunity International Savings and Loans won the Technology Advanced Savings and Loans Company of the Year while the CEO, Kwame Owusu-Boateng won the Savings and Loans CEO of the Year award.

Bayport Savings and Loans were awarded with the Best Savings and Loans Pay Roll Provider of the Year as well as the Best Loan Provider of the Year.
Appreciation

Speaking at the event, CEO of Instinct Wave, Akin Naphtal, said: “We want to appreciate you because without a robust financial sector there won’t be any economic growth so everyone seated here tonight deserve an accolade.”

“Not only do we want to recognize you but we believe that your value is worth giving you a platform like this because without you there is no existence of any organization. One thing we promise you is that every year we will keep getting better by bringing all stakeholders together and appreciating you,” he concluded.