Address by Austin Okere, Founder, CWG Plc at the 20th anniversary celebration of CWG Ghana Limited

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you indeed for coming to celebrate this special day with us. A journey that started 20 years ago. It gives me great pleasure to recall the milestone of our momentous journey:

I am usually asked what informed the strategic decision to set up CWG Ghana in 2003, Did being a Ghanaian citizen influence my decision?

Quite honestly, being a citizen played a big role in that decision, but beyond that was the bigger picture of the immense opportunity we saw to replicate a proven strategy of service excellence and customer intimacy in a rapidly growing market.

Ghana had discovered the Jubilee Oilfield and had become the headquarters of the African Continental Free Trade Area. Moreso, our anchor customer MTN, with whom we were doing a global annual revenue of $35m had selected Ghana as her West African hub. It made a lot of sense to follow the path of our biggest customer by establishing CWG Ghana as our West Africa hub as well.?

In the past 20 years, we have changed the game for service delivery to our customers in the telecoms, Oil & Gas, banking and Government sectors in Ghana by shouldering their technology burden so that they can focus on their core businesses, and they have reciprocated with their loyalty, making CWG Ghana one of the biggest contributors to the technology space in Ghana.

And this has been sustained over the 20 years through quality partnerships with global giants such as Infosys, Dell and Microsoft as well as locally developed Platforms that offer products and services on a subscription basis. We have also collaborated with local companies to deploy best-in-class solutions that have enabled Ghanaian enterprises to flourish, foster innovation, and enhance their competitiveness.?

It is worthy to note the role of CWG Ghana in supporting our East African Hub in Uganda and our Central African hub in Cameroon and her contribution to establishing CWG Dubai for our Group’s International financing coordination. The future of CWG Ghana is very bright, as we deepen our footprints and service offerings, thereby providing superior value to our customers.

A key part of our culture is giving back to society through our Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives such as providing a laptop and employment opportunity for the best graduating student in computer sciences at the University of Ghana (which happens to be my alma mater).

This is in addition to setting up the CWG Academy, which provides a world-class, practical and experiential learning incubation for fresh graduates who have chosen to make a career in technology and offering them employment opportunities in our company and that of our customers.

I would like to deeply appreciate our customers who have reposed confidence in us by allowing us to be their technology partners, the regulators for their support and holding us to higher standards and accountability, and above all our staff who have provided the shoulders that have carried CWG Ghana all these years.

I would like to recognise especially the Managing Director of CWG Ghana, Mrs Harriet Yartey, who has been the longest serving Managing Director and also past Managing Directors; Anthony Dadzie, Femi Ibine and Thaddeus Babaoye who blazed the trail and charted a path for us.

I acknowledge and recognise here present, other Board members of CWG Plc, Mrs Taba Peterside, and Mr Afolabi Shobande. I will be remiss if I do not acknowledge my dear wife, Mrs. Sola Okere for her unwavering support all the years of burning the midnight candle.

This anniversary is very special and significant in our history and cements our deep roots in Ghana while looking forward to the next 20 years. I give Almighty God all the glory for what he has used us to achieve in Ghana.?

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen thank you once again and God bless.

Austin Kwesi Okere is a thought leader and business mentor. Currently an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Columbia Business School, New York, Austin has also facilitated at the United States International University in Kenya and consulted for the Sustainable Development Goals, Africa Centre in Rwanda. Austin was appointed to the Business Practices Council of the AACSB International and Advisory Board of the Global Business School Network in recognition of his contribution to the development of business education and knowledge transfer in Africa. CWG Plc, the company which he founded has been recognised as a ‘Global Growth Company’ by the World Economic Forum and is the largest security listed in the Technology Sector of the NGX.?