Chartered Institute of Bankers (CIB), Ghana
has crowned the University of Ghana, Legon as champion of the second National
Banking and Ethics Challenge (NBEC 2.0), held at the CIB Ghana Auditorium in
Accra. The University of Ghana Business School finished first with 35 points,
ahead of the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) on 29.5 points
and the University for Development Studies (UDS) on 26.5 points, in a keenly
contested Grand Finale that drew faculty, students, and banking industry leaders
from across the country.
Competition growing in scale and ambition
NBEC 2.0 marked a significant expansion of the
competition, with twelve universities participating; more than double the five
institutions that took part in the inaugural edition in May 2025. The competing
institutions represented a broad cross-section of Ghana’s higher education
sphere: KNUST, University of Ghana, University of Cape Coast (UCC), University
of Education, Winneba (UEW), University for Development Studies (UDS), Central
University, Academic City University College, Wisconsin International
University College, All Nations University, Pentecost University College, and
UPSA.
Together they spanned public research
universities, private liberal arts colleges, and professionally oriented urban
institutions, showing the national reach of the initiative. The
competition unfolded across three progressive stages, preliminaries,
semifinals, before culminating in the Grand Finale.
In his remarks, the Institute’s President,
Benjamin Amenumey, described the initiative as both a training ground and a
strategic intervention in the Banking sector’s future.
“The National Banking and Ethics Challenge was
born of a simple conviction. The future of banking depends on professionals who
are ethically grounded, intellectually sharp, and prepared for the global
landscape that never stands still,” he said, adding that as innovation
accelerates, sound judgment, accountability, and integrity become the sector’s
true anchors.
This, he noted, contributed to the increased
participation.
“The interest is so high we have twelve
universities, and I am confident it can only get better. Every contestant who
participated in the CIB Ghana 2026 National Banking and Ethics Challenge is a
winner, in the knowledge they have acquired, the experiences, and the network,”
Mr. Amenumey stated.
Tangible benefits for all participants
CIB Ghana announced a suite of concrete
benefits for participants at this year’s event, reinforcing the Institute’s
commitment to the professional development of the next generation of bankers.
GCB Bank will provide internship placements
for all contestants who participated in NBEC 2.0, offering direct exposure to
the banking industry. Contestants who choose to enroll as Chartered
bankers with CIB Ghana will receive a 100 percent waiver on their registration
fees, while non-contestant attendees who were present at the event are eligible
for a 50 percent fee waiver on student registration. Furthermore, a dedicated
mentorship corner provided career counselling and professional development
guidance to students throughout the day, ensuring that every attendee left with
more than a certificate.
Banking professionalism as the rationale
Mr. Robert Dzato , the CEO of CIB Ghana situated
the NBEC within CIB Ghana’s core statutory mandate as enshrined in the
Chartered Bankers Act 2019 (Act 911) — to promote the study of banking and
regulate the practice of the banking profession. He articulated four
overarching objectives driving the challenge, each operating at a distinct
level of ambition.
The first and most fundamental is the
development of trusted professionals. Mr. Dzato drew a striking analogy to
convey the gravity of the banking profession: in the same way that errors in
aviation can cost lives, failures in banking carry profound human consequences
for savers, borrowers, businesses, and the wider economy. Behind every bad
banking decision, he noted, there is a story of disrupted livelihoods, stalled
education, and unmet health needs.
“Trust is the currency in banking. Cash is the
raw material. The true currency is trust, and that trust comes from ethics,
from character, from doing the right thing even when no one is watching,” he
said.
The second objective aligns the NBEC with the
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals framework, specifically SDG 4 on
quality education, which calls for expanded financial literacy programming at
all levels. CIB Ghana’s decision to take the challenge to the university level
reflects the Institute’s conviction that financial education must be embedded
at every stage of a banking professional’s formation, not only at the point of
industry entry.
The third objective is to broaden public
financial education. Several questions in the competition were deliberately
designed to equip students and by extension the wider public, with practical
knowledge of banking products, processes for managing dormant accounts,
procedures following the death of an account holder, and protection against the
growing threat of cyber fraud and digital financial crime. The competition’s
design principle, as Mr. Dzato noted, is that even non-contestants in the
auditorium should leave better informed than when they arrived.
The fourth objective is sector-wide re-professionalization,
Mr. Dzato was candid about the
reputational context, particularly, headlines concerning banking misconduct,
the 2017–2018 sector clean-up, and a documented rise in staff-related fraud
have eroded public confidence in the industry.
The NBEC, he added, is a mechanism for
building a cohort of bankers whose competence and ethics are credentialed,
visible, and publicly accountable.
Mr Clifford Duke Mettle, a former President of
the Chartered Institute of Bankers Ghana and a distinguished alumnus of the
University of Ghana, challenged students and contestants to treat the challenge
not as a passing exercise but as a formative professional experience.
Drawing on his own entry into the banking
profession, he urged participants to internalise the knowledge encountered at
the event and deploy it in their communities, as ambassadors of financial
literacy and banking professionalism in conversations with family and friends
long after the competition concluded. “Banking is a wonderful profession. It
gives you status, but more than that, it gives you responsibility. The essence
of what we are doing here is to show that once you work in a bank, people can
trust you, people can believe in you,” Mr. Clifford Mettle said.
NBEC 2.0 scope
NBEC 2.0 tested contestants across a
comprehensive range of contemporary banking and finance topics, reflecting the
breadth of knowledge required of the modern chartered banker. The subject
domains covered included everyday banking; products, services, dormant
accounts, and estate banking procedures following the death of an account holder,
and environmental, Sustainable Governance (ESG) principles.
Questions on fraud prevention and detection
addressed cyber fraud, SIM swap fraud, and staff-related fraud, while the
digital banking section examined the evolving digital currency landscape
including cryptocurrency. Cybersecurity, consumer protection in digital
financial environments, and financial literacy fundamentals, including the
distinction between savings, current, and investment accounts, rounded out the
curriculum.
The design of the question bank reflects
NBEC’s dual mandate to develop technically capable professionals and to serve
as a vehicle for public financial education. Questions were constructed so that
even audience members with no prior banking training could benefit from the
knowledge being exchanged on stage.
The Chartered Banker pathway
Mr.
Dzato also outlined CIB Ghana’s four-level qualification structure for
those seeking to become chartered bankers. The framework progresses from
Fundamentals in Financial Services at Level 1, through Financial Services
Practitioner at Level 2 and Expert Practitioner in Financial Services at Level
3, to Strategic Leader in Financial Services at Level 4.
The structure is designed around
practitioner-responsive, modular learning, what Mr Dzato described as a shift
from “just-in-case” to “just-in-time” education, allowing bankers to pursue
depth in specific subject areas such as treasury management without completing
the full qualification pathway.
The Institute also offers a suite of
complementary programmes, including a digital learning academy, an ESG
curriculum developed in partnership with the International Finance Corporation
(IFC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA Ghana), and an ethics
certification e-learning programme. The ethics programme, which is free to all
member institutions including the Bank of Ghana, recorded approximately 10,000
completions under its first iteration; Ethics 2.0 was launched in early 2026.
CIB Ghana also conducts biannual post-monetary policy seminars, bringing
together the Ministry of Finance, the Bank of Ghana, the Association of
Industries, and the banking community to discuss policy implications ahead of
Monetary Policy Committee decisions.
NBEC 3.0 and beyond
Mr. Dzato confirmed that CIB Ghana intends to
make the National Banking and Ethics Challenge an annual event, with plans for
significant structural and thematic evolution in the next edition. On the
institutional front, the Institute plans to introduce a regional zone format
comprising a southern zone and a northern zone, broadening access for
universities outside the Greater Accra catchment area and reducing logistical
barriers for institutions in the north. This structural change, if implemented,
would meaningfully increase the competition’s reach while maintaining the
quality of the grand finale.
On content, NBEC 3.0 is expected to
incorporate emerging regulatory areas, including developments around
non-performing loans and digital assets and cryptocurrency, reflecting the
rapidly evolving landscape that chartered bankers must navigate. Deeper institutional
partnership with university banking and finance faculties is also a stated
priority, including the sharing of CIB Ghana resources and the development of
pathways for academic staff to themselves become chartered bankers.
“We are not limiting ourselves to Ghana. Our
vision is to be the most relevant institute for professional banking education
in Africa. We are developing trusted human capital for the continent,” Mr.
Dzato said.
About CIB, Ghana
The Chartered Institute of Bankers (CIB) Ghana
is the statutory professional body for banking and financial services
professionals in Ghana, established under the Chartered Bankers Act 2019 (Act
911). The Institute’s mandate is to promote the study of banking and regulate
the practice of the banking profession. CIB Ghana sits at the intersection of
academia and industry, developing trusted, ethical, and competent professionals
for the Ghanaian and African banking sectors. The Institute offers the Chartered
Banker qualification across four levels, a digital learning academy, ethics
certification, and ESG training programmes, and conducts regular policy
dialogue with regulators and industry stakeholders.
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