Meet Nana Essilfuah Tamakloe: Ghana’s Marketing and Communication Matriarch

The role of the Director of Marketing and Corporate Relations in the banking sector is a strategic one which involves partnership to all the business areas of the bank, covering Marketing, Communication, Citizenship and Public Relations.

Being in charge of this role requires being versatile, experienced, strong willed, skilled among others especially in an industry that has suffered setbacks.

In this 21^st century, one of the key tasks for modern banks is finding ways and methods for creating sustainable competition advantage in increasingly competitive financial markets. The role of marketing within this task is beyond doubt, especially in bank services quality area. The quality is reached through putting clients in the epicentre and by giving them special treatment.

It is worth noting that the key objective in all marketing activities is creating value for the customers, that is, clients, with the aim of providing their long-term loyalty. This implies building stronger connections and relations with the customers, with more partner relationship than a classic offer and demand laws. In such circumstances, the most important marketing function is brand development, of which Nana Essilfuah Tamakloe is of no exception when it comes to performing such function.

Nana Essilfuah Tamakloe, the Director of Marketing and Corporate Relations of Absa Bank Ghana, with over twenty years of combined experience in Sales, Consumer Services, Business Management, Marketing, Public Relations and Communication is leaving no stone unturned in her role.

Appointed in 2007 as the Marketing and Corporate Relations Director of Absa Bank Ghana, Nana Essilfuah has turned the fortunes of the banking industry around through avant-garde initiatives. Under her leadership, Absa Bank Ghana previously known as Barclays Bank has chalked some successes which included being named Best Bank in Ghana by Euromoney in 2014, making it the second in four years. Also, as of the end of the 2017 financial year, Absa Bank was named the most profitable bank in the country. She has led her team to deliver top notch results and coordinating with cross functional teams in the areas of, Integrated Marketing, Corporate Communications, External Relations, Crisis Management, Stakeholder management, Corporate Social Responsibility.

One of her remarkable career achievements is the strong leadership of her team that has led to the successful transitioning of Barclays Bank to Absa Bank in 2017 with the ultimate launch thereof in February, 2020. The success of this project was adjudged the biggest rebranding of any organization ever in Africa. This launch won several corporate awards, including: Best Marketing Team of the Year (July2021- Marketing World Awards Africa), Best Rebranding Campaign of the Year (July2021- Marketing World Awards Africa), Best Bank of the Year (Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana – CIMG 2020) and  Best Banking Brand in Africa (2020 – Marketing World Awards Africa).

With Essilfuah’s broad knowledge and experience in both private and public sector, she served on a number of them including; Ministerial Tender Board, GES, Donewell Life Company Limited, the Ghana Immigration Service. She made significant contributions to performance and growth during her tenure.  She transitioned into the banking sector 11 years ago from Nestle Central West Africa (CWA), having built her earlier career in the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods sector for 14 years. At Nestlé Central & West Africa Region, she was the Category Business Manager, Culinary where she was responsible for coordinating responsibilities in executing Category Strategy for 23 Central West African countries.

Notwithstanding, at Nestle Ghana, she occupied positions such as Group Brands Manager – Food and Consumer Services, Brand Manager- Food & Adult Cereal, Sales Administration Manager, and Area Sales Manager Wholesale and Retail. Nana has also spearheaded projects such as ‘Blazing Trails’ which has changed the recruitment landscape of Ghana by providing alternative job opportunities for the youth through business start-ups and has enabled fresh graduates to become attractive applicants for employers to recruit. She is currently an adjunct lecturer at the Methodist University College Ghana where she lectures Marketing and Corporate Relationship Management for Masters students in Entrepreneurship Education.

Nana Essilfuah’s experience and hard work has won her a number of awards in her career, she was adjudged amongst the Top 50 Marketing & Communication Leader in Africa (July2021- Marketing World Awards Africa), Outstanding Communication Professional of the Year – Private Sector (August 2021 – National Governance & Business Leadership Awards Ghana), Top 20 Marketing and Communications Professional in Africa (2019 – Marketing World Awards Africa), Marketing Personality of the Year (2018 – Marketing World Awards Africa),Top 50 Marketing and Communications Professional in West Africa (2017 – Marketing World Awards Africa) and the most recent being Marketing Personality of the Year at the 8th edition of the Marketing World Awards.

Her additional roles and responsibilities in supporting the development and empowerment of female colleagues within the business earned her the Chairlady of the Barclays Ghana Women network Forum.

Essilfuah holds a BA – Social Science (Law and History) an EMBA in Marketing – University of Ghana Business School, a Professional Masters Certification , Alternate Dispute Resolution from Gamey & Gamey and the University of the Virgin Islands -USA,  and a certificate in  Digital Marketing from the University of Stellenbosch Business school in Cape Town, South Africa.

With a sound multi-cultural and diversity management skills and experience in coaching and mentoring, she is passionate about mentoring women, people development and continues to support individuals and teams to develop their competencies for performance. She has mentored a number of marketing professionals in the industry.

In terms of her affiliations, Nana is a full member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana, Institute of Public Relations Ghana, Ghana Association of Bankers (GAB)Media & Communication Committee, International Advertising Association (IAA) and  Executive Women Network (EWN), the Brand Lead of Empowered Women, and a Member of the investment and Financial Sustainability Committee of the Accra Diocese- Methodist Church of Ghana.

By: Diella Teku/MarketingWorld