General Manager for Ghana Co-operative Credit Unions Association (CUA), Emmanuel Coffie, will be the Special Guest of honour for the summit to equip Credit Unions facing various challenges in the Ghanaian financial sector.

The financial sector clean up has dented the image of the Credit Union sector and has pushed many customers. This is threatening the survival of the sector which employs hundreds of Ghanaians.

As a result, the second edition of the Credit Unions Rebranding Conference is slated for February 25 to 26, 2020 at the Credit Union’s Training Centre (Cutrac), at Kasoa in the Central Region.

The initiative by Micro Watch and the Ghana Co-operative Credit Unions Association (CUA) will bring together facilitators and participants from across Africa to deliberate and brainstorm on policies and practices that if implemented, will alter Credit Unions into financial institutions of influence.

The two-day event is targeted at enlightening participants to explore the role of branding in profit maximisation, Strengthening Credit Unions to create a solid and sustainable brand, interpretation of innovative branding methods to business owners, improving credit unions brand visibility and establishing a platform for networking and knowledge sharing amongst Credit Unions in this critical era for financial institutions in Ghana.

The theme of the two-day conference is “Developing Innovative Brand for Credit Unions vis a vis the Ghanaian Financial Sector Challenges."

This summit seeks amongst other things to equip Credit Unions with the necessary proficiency to develop into national financial institutions of influence.

Dr Samuel Nana Yaw Simpson of the University of Ghana Co-operative Credit Union, will facilitate on the topic Effective Corporate Governance within Credit Unions: The Role of the Manager and Board; Maame Afua Essel of Vodafone Ghana on Digital Marketing Strategies, Mr Kofi Adimado of Queen of Peace Co-operative Credit Union will handle Effective Risk Management for Development amongst Credit Unions.

A former General Manager of the Ghana Credit Unions Association, Mr Emmanuel Oduro Darko will handle; Improving Media Visibility of Credit Unions for Membership Growth. Mr Jeremiah Tetteh will deal with; Building Staff Brand Loyalty for Effective Customer Relationship and Mr James Kwesi Addison will divulge participants with the knowledge on Building Member Confidence: The Role of Emotional Intelligence.

The maiden edition dubbed, “Credit Union Rebranding Conference 2019, was a landmark event that brought together connoisseurs in the financial sector, stakeholders and practitioners.

Mr Asiamah the then out-going General Manager of CUA shared the conviction that this laudable initiative will go a long way to enhance the services and visibility of Credit Unions in Ghana and should be recurrent.

Mr Emmanuel Oduro Darko, a former General Manager of CUA, was the first Speaker for the day one of the summits and facilitated the topic “Creating Marketing Culture for Growth of Credit Unions”. He commended the major impact Credit Unions are making in the development of the informal and microeconomic sector of the country.

However, Mr Darko bemoaned the poor brand visibility and marketing culture amongst Credit Unions and called for a buildup of the best standard and innovative practices to transform Credit Unions into strong financial institutions that can thrive withstanding the current financial crisis in Ghana.

To educate the partakers on ‘Accounting and FInancial literacy in Rebranding’, Mr Marc Johnson lectured them on the importance of being accountable.

A Speaker from South Africa, Mr Marc Johnson made presentations under the theme, “Accounting and Financial Literacy in Rebranding. He emphasized how crucial accountability and transparency is in rebranding.

Mr Johnson also engaged participants on innovative accounting methods and the need to apply technology in their routine activities. He also taught them how to keep accounts and how to invest their resources in valuable assets to gain more income.

The summit returned from a thirty minutes break to have the Chief Design and Customer Experience for Mesika, Mr Eric Gyamera, entreated credit unions to digitalise their transactions.

He emphasized that the digitalised transaction is efficient and promote customer loyalty due to clarity.

“Developing a New Brand Identity”, Mr Harrison Ahorgba told participants to adopt effective ways of satisfying members of their various credit unions.

Mr Ahorgba accentuated that, a brand surpasses the logo of cooperation. A brand he noted requires dedication that will promote customer satisfaction because unsatisfied customers are very dangerous to an organization.

Mr Carl Ashie dealt with the topic “Leveraging Technology to Grow Credit Unions”. Mr Ashie said globalization and technology is increasing rapidly across the world and how an organization utilizes it determines its growth rate.

The day ended with a very insightful presentation from Mr Bernard Kelvin Clive on the topic, “The need for Rebranding and Repositioning. He explained that, for things to function properly and fall into place within the Credit Union Movement positive energy and collective efforts must be demonstrated. Also, strategies that produce positive results must not be changed but maintain and expanded.

Day two of the summit commenced with a euphoric presentation from Mr Jeremiah Tetteh on the theme, “Building Staff Brand Loyalty”. He urged management to involve their staff in the decision making process of their unions. Mr Tetteh clarified that staff brand loyalty can only be attained when staffs are made to feel part of the initiation and decision making of policies of their various unions.

Mr Alex Offei Lartey handled “Digital Marketing Strategies” whiles Mr Richard Amuzu added an exciting touch to his presentation on Corporate Governance. “The effects of corporate rebranding on customer satisfaction and loyalty was presented by Mr Bernard Clive and Mr Marc Johnson ended the conference on the topic “Records Keeping”.

Certificates were presented to participants who expressed their pleasure at the first-ever Credit Unions Rebranding Conference and called on organizers to continue with this educative program.

The Chief Executive Officer of Hydro Credit Co-operative Union Limited (HCCUL), Mr Joseph Garti noted that rebranding is very relevant to credit unions in view of occurrences in the financial sector of the country and called on Credit Unions who could not make it to the maiden edition of the summit to attend subsequent ones.