Chief Executive Officer of Universal Merchant Bank, Mr. John Awuah has been adjudged the Finance Personality of the Year at the just ended 4th Ghana Finance Innovation Awards (GFIA).
The event was held at Mövenpick Ambassador Hotel in Accra on the October 19, 2018.
Mr. Awuah was nominated as the recipient of the Finance Personality of the Year based on his enviable track record and shrewd leadership at UMB.
The award criteria was based on his huge contribution and many years of experience in areas such as financial control, regulatory reporting, credit control, performance management, taxation, market risk monitoring, financial accounting, operational risk and corporate strategy. The bank was also adjudged Best Customer Experience award.
Innovations
In the past year, the CEO of UMB has championed a myriad of forward-thinking physical and digital innovations that have significantly improved the way the bank operates and enhanced its profitability.
Notable amongst these achievements are the impressive financial performance of the bank in 2017 as Profit before Tax was in excess of 150 percent over the performance recorded in the previous year, 2016.
Also in the digital mobile banking space, Mr. Awuah spearheaded the successful introduction of the bank’s mobile banking application in 2018, UMB SpeedApp, which has since become one of the top finance applications in the industry following its official media launch in February 2018.
The convenient services and features on the UMB SpeedApp are available to both customers and non-customers and as such a lot of the users have resorted to transacting on the mobile platform as against visiting the bank’s various branches nationwide to do business.
The introduction of the mobile application was in line with the bank’s focus of digitizing the banking experiences of its existing customers as well as potential customers.
In his interaction with the media on the night, the CEO of UMB expressed his appreciation for the honour bestowed on him and dedicated the award to the loyal customers of the bank and to members of staff at UMB for their commitment to work.
About the awards
The 4th Ghana Finance Innovation Awards (GFIA) is an event meant to recognize leading, finance experts, teams and top finance organizations whose outstanding leadership and practices have elevated the standards of accountability within the profession, showcased brilliance in managing organizations’ wealth as well as promoting economic growth.
