The Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana (CIMG), has admitted 104 new members for the years 2020 and 2021.
This is the first time the Institute, in its 40 years of existence, had admitted two different cohorts (2020 and 2021) together at the same ceremony.
The 104 inductees included full members, 27, associate members, 60, emerging associate members, 13, graduate members, one, honorary members, one, and corporate members, two.
The graduation of the 2020 cohort could not take place because of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Dr Daniel Kasser Tee, the President of the CIMG, said the inductees were in at a time the CIGM and the entire marketing fraternity were celebrating the passage of the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana Act, 2020 (Act 1021).
It was on the back of that that they launched the CIMG Professional Marketing Qualifications, ahead of starting their first local examination in September 2021.
He said the Institute had subsequently granted accreditation status to 20 universities and tuition centres, who were working hard to start the provision of tuition in June/July to enable them to engage students for a minimum of three months before they took their exams.
Dr Kasser Tee urged all inductees, who were presently not professionally qualified, to take advantage of the opportunity to enrol.
“It is good to be admitted to the Institute as a member, in any category, but what is important is to ensure that you eventually acquire the professional license to practice, such as the Certificate in Professional Marketing (ProM Certificate) to be awarded by CIMG, starting from the September exams, the Postgraduate Diploma in Professional Marketing (DipM) issued by the Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK (CIMUK) and other such licenses,” Dr Tee said.
“This is the only way by which you would have proven your professional competencies as marketers.”
He assured the inductees that the professional marketing certificate was one of the very best they could find around the globe, which gave them the opportunity to benchmark against the best in class before arriving at the contents and courses for the ProM certificate.
Dr Kasser Tee said the decision to customise the programme to suit the Ghanaian and African markets was to give it more advantages over its generic counterparts, which were packaged to benefit other economies and regions, with very little consideration for Africa.
He implored the inductees who were professionally qualified to take steps at starting their Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme now, which would lead them to attain the Chartered Marketers status, taking them to the peak of their profession.
Dr Kasser Tee said unlike what pertained elsewhere, CIMG’s Chartered Marketers status could only be conferred on a professionally qualified individual, with ProM or DipM certificates plus a minimum of a Master’s Degree in Marketing with intense experience in industry and/or academia.
“This is how we practicalise the dual qualifications that we introduced to the market in April”.
Dr Tee reminded the inductees that as they stepped into the corporate world, there were three absolute necessities they would require for success – the right mind set, digitalisation, and the use of technology and customisation.
He said as marketers they owe it as an obligation to support the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda of the Government.
He said they could do so by helping the huge proportion of Ghanaian businesses, which were classified as micro, small and medium enterprises, report to be contributing some 70 per cent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Dr Tee said they could also help to modify the tastes and preference of Ghanaians in favour of Made- in-Ghana products.
He urged them to contribute meaningfully to make CIMG stronger and strategically positioned to help Ghana in her development journey.
Mr Theodore Osae, Member of the CIMG Governing Council, said the induction was the last to be conducted for new entrants without they necessarily going through their own professional marketing qualification, launched in April, this year.
Madam Priscilla Baaba Halm, an inductee, on behalf of her colleagues, expressed gratitude to the Governing Council of CIMG for the honour done them, saying, “We promise to uphold the ethics of the profession and work harder as expected from us”.
