The President of the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana, Daniel Kasser Tee, is hopeful the marketing industry will be sanitized with the passage of the CIMG Bill into an Act.
The bill, which was delayed in Parliament for nearly two decades, was finally passed into law last week, awaiting presidential assent.
The Act is expected to regulate the activities of marketers and industry players, to protect the public and consumers.
CIMG, whose mandate is to provide world class training and conduct examinations to develop the skills of marketers and influence Government policy and regulation on marketing and business, has faced challenges in the absence of a bill.
However, speaking to Citi Business News, Mr. Kasser Tee said the Act will not only provide financial support to the CIMG, but will also empower the Institute to regulate the activities of marketers in the country.
“It gives us the same legal backing to conduct exams for students. At the moment, to qualify as a Professional Marketer, you need to travel outside the country for examination. The amount of hard currency that goes out of this country per annum, is so huge. So, once we begin to do local exams, all these huge sums of money stays in the country so the bill is beneficial to practicing marketers, to students and also to Ghana”.
He added that with no restrictions holding them back, professionalism will be guaranteed.
“The challenges we faced was that you were so restricted without any legal backing to do the things that you are supposed to do as a professional association, and that is why we have been pursuing this bill from the days of President Kufour,” he said.
The bill, when finally assented to by the President, will mean that, CIMG will now have the requisite legal backing to set standards for the practice of Marketing, and regulate the practice of the Marketing profession in Ghana.