Honourable Minister for Education
Honourable Member of Parliament for Adenta
Director-General of Ghana Education Service
Regional Director of GES
District Chief Executives
District Directors and Circuit Supervisors
Media Men and Women
Representatives of Beneficiary Institutions
Teachers, Students and Pupils of Christ Faith Mission Basic School
Ladies and Gentlemen

Permit me to thank all of you gathered here today, for giving the bank the opportunity to discharge part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) today.

A cross-section of dignitaries at the donations ceremony. They are from left: Nicholas Adjei, Adenta Municipal Coordinating Director, Yiadom Asare-Boakye, General Manager of Risk Management  at TTB, Isaac Owusu-Hemeng, MD of TTB and Godwin Addo, National Examinations Officer for GES (representing the Hon Minister for Education)

By our interpretation, CSR refers to the continuing commitment by TTB, to behave as a good corporate citizen by conducting its activities in an ethically acceptable manner towards its external stakeholders whilst contributing towards Ghana’s socio-economic development as well as the quality of life of our staff, their families and, indeed, the communities where the bank operates. We view social responsibilities as actions which do not have purely financial returns but which are demanded of the bank under an unwritten social contract with our aforementioned stakeholders.

It is not by accident that CSR is today being discussed at the board levels for most progressive organisations and CSR reporting has been gaining headlines in the last few years. All stakeholders, including customers, suppliers, government, employees, the media and local communities are beginning to demand more information about the contributions of their companies to society.

We are quite aware that achieving financial success alone should not be the sole measure by which organisations are judged but by the extent to which such organisations are able and willing to reciprocate the contribution made by society to their success. At the Trust Bank we have over the years exhibited such reciprocity by helping to improve teaching and learning in a number of deprived community-based public basic schools, uplifting the health delivery systems in some public medical institutions and also contributing towards socio-cultural activities in a number of traditional areas.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to say that, TTB has put in place a policy paper to guide management in the discharge of the bank’s social responsibilities to society. The policy focuses on education and health with some level of attention to other key sectors, particularly socio-cultural affairs and sports. Our friends from the media will agree with me that the bank has consistently and passionately supported these areas over the years.

The beneficiaries for this afternoon's programme are 12 deprived community-based basic schools selected from Accra, Tema, Kasoa and Kumasi. Each of these schools receives an amount of GHC4,000 as donation for the procurement of reading books and other teaching aids. The Burns Unit of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital and the Ghana Society for the Blind will also receive cash donations of GHC10, 000 and GHC4,000 respectively, bringing the total amount to GHC62,000.

As you may recall, these 12 schools have been on the bank’s CSR  agenda for the past 2 years, 2009 being the 3rd year running. By the end of today’s ceremony, they would have each received, in cumulative terms, over GHC12,000 within the three-year period, 2007 to 2009.

We purposefully chose to concentrate on these schools for the past three years to enable us properly to equip each one of them as our unique way of facilitating teaching and learning in the beneficiary schools.  

By this action, each school is expected to have in place a well-stocked library, computers and accessories as well as other teaching aids capable of serving a full stream from lower primary to junior high school for a reasonable period of time.

Isaac Owusu-Hemeng, MD of TTB leading dignitaries at the ceremony to inspect some of the books and teaching aids donated by the bank

Even though this is our very last year of making corporate donations to these schools, we will continue to monitor closely the usage of the equipment and materials donated to ensure that the desired benefits reach all pupils and students. My personal singular request, at this time, is for authorities in these schools to protect the assets acquired for them so that future generations of pupils and students would also benefit from their usage.

Turning now to the other beneficiaries in the education sector, we are happy to observe with interest the special relationship TTB has established with The Ghana Society for the Blind over the years. The society has been a beneficiary of our annual donations since 2003 and it is our intention to continue the relationship into the future as our contribution towards extending educational opportunities to our visually impaired brothers and sisters.

Several health institutions have also benefited from the generosity of TTB and in particular, selected departments of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital have been on our annual donation list over the years. First, it was the Cardio Unit, then the Maternity Block and today, it is the turn of the Burns Centre to receive GHC10, 000 as our modest contribution towards providing needed facilities. 

Ladies and gentlemen,  I hope today’s event would encourage other corporate bodies and organizations to also take their corporate social responsibilities seriously by donating generously to needed sectors and deprived public institutions in their  respective areas of operations.

Thank you.