The donation, led by the Head of Internal Control, Paa Kwesi Simpson, was made under the team’s Employee Community Initiative, through which employees contribute to community development efforts.

The Foundation received a grinding mill and accessories, a 508-litre freezer and GH¢5,000 in cash to support its immediate needs.

Simpson said the initiative was driven by the team’s desire to contribute to communities beyond its regular professional responsibilities.

He said while the Internal Control team’s core mandate centered on risk management and controls, its members also recognised the importance of responding to social needs within communities.

This initiative reflects our shared commitment to making a meaningful impact in the communities we serve and contributing positively beyond our ‘risk & control’ responsibilities,” he said.

Simpson explained that the team chose to support the Foundation after considering some of the practical needs that could make a difference to its operations and the welfare of the children.

He highlighted that, the items were intended to provide useful, lasting support rather than serve as a one-off gesture, adding that the team was pleased to contribute in an area where its assistance could be put to immediate use.

Receiving the donation, the Founder of the Weep Not Child Foundation, Nana Ama Benewaa I, expressed appreciation to the Stanbic Bank team for the support.

She said the donation had come at an important time for the Foundation, which continues to cater for the needs of children under its care.

Nana Ama Benewaa said the grinding mill, freezer and cash support would help address some of the Foundation’s immediate requirements and ease aspects of its day-to-day operations.

This support has come at a good time for us. The items will be put to good use and will help us respond to some of the needs of the children and the Foundation,” she said.

She thanked the Internal Control team for identifying the Foundation as a beneficiary and for taking steps to provide practical assistance.

She also encouraged the team to sustain its community-focused initiatives, saying continued support from individuals and organizations could help institutions such as the Foundation provide better care for vulnerable children.

Asomaning made this call at Stanbic Bank’s Transaction Banking Client Engagement Forum in Accra, held on the theme “Creating Value Beyond Transaction.” He said companies should expect their financial partners to bring expertise, market insight and practical solutions to the relationship, rather than simply provide routine banking services.

He said the demands facing businesses had changed significantly, requiring banking relationships to evolve with them. “There was a time when banking relationships were defined primarily by transactions. Payments were processed, accounts were maintained, and trade instruments were issued. Necessary functions, certainly, but no longer sufficient in an environment marked by complex supply chains,” he said.

Asomaning said banks could play a more meaningful role by helping companies manage liquidity, improve efficiency, strengthen risk management and identify opportunities that might otherwise be overlooked. “The most valuable banking partner is not simply the institution that processes transactions efficiently. It is the institution that helps clients make better decisions.”

He said businesses needed to combine operational discipline with strategic choices that could protect their competitiveness and create sustainable value, particularly in an environment where market conditions could change quickly.

According to him, this approach should influence how companies assess the value of their relationships with financial institutions. Quoting investor Warren Buffett, Asomaning said, “price is what you pay, value is what you get.”

He explained that the real value of a banking relationship should be reflected in the expertise, connectivity and measurable outcomes that a financial institution brings to its clients.

The true measure of a banking relationship is therefore not the volume of transactions processed, but the value generated through expertise, partnership, and tangible outcomes.”

Asomaning also highlighted the importance of regional connectivity as Ghanaian companies explore opportunities across Africa and beyond.

As a member of Standard Bank Group, Asomaning said Stanbic Bank operates within a network spanning 21 African markets. This footprint, he noted “gives us a unique perspective on the forces shaping trade, investment, and business growth across Africa. It allows us to identify opportunities, anticipate risks, and understand emerging trends, not in isolation, but as part of an increasingly interconnected commercial ecosystem.”

He said the regional network, combined with local market knowledge and cross-border relationships, could help businesses navigate unfamiliar markets and make more informed expansion decisions.

The forum brought together Stanbic Bank clients and business stakeholders to examine changing expectations in Trade finance, Payments, Custody Services, channel solutions and how financial institutions can support companies as they pursue growth in a more interconnected economy.

Kwamina Asomaning, Chief Executive, Stanbic Bank Ghana

The Head of Business Products Solutioning at Stanbic Bank Ghana, Benedict Kwasi Obeng, said businesses must be adequately prepared to understand target markets, identify viable opportunities and meet the requirements of international buyers before attempting to scale across borders.

He was speaking at the Internationalization and Market Access Dialogue 2026, held under the theme, “International Trade: Its Contributions to Accessing Target Markets.”

According to Obeng, the ability of local businesses to participate meaningfully in international trade depends on addressing several challenges simultaneously, including market knowledge, financing, business capability and access to credible buyers.

He said this was the rationale behind the establishment of Trade Connect, Stanbic Bank Ghana’s export and import readiness programme designed to help businesses build the capacity required to trade internationally.

Trade Connect was built to empower businesses to capitalize on new opportunities and, ultimately, to facilitate businesses to trade with the world,” Obeng said.

He explained that the programme goes beyond conventional training by combining practical learning with market access opportunities, financial solutions and business advisory support.

Through the programme, participating businesses receive support around financial instruments, market access and tailored propositions, while businesses can also access advisory services through the Stanbic Incubator.

Obeng said the approach was intended to address some of the practical barrier’s businesses encounter when they seek to move from serving the local market to engaging customers and partners across borders.

For a business to successfully enter an international market, it must first be export ready. That means understanding the market, knowing what buyers require, having the right systems in place and being able to identify and respond to opportunities,” he said.

The programme, he added, provides participating businesses with a pathway to strengthen their operations while gaining exposure to digital markets, peer networks and potential buyers.

He noted that such connections could be particularly important for small and medium-sized enterprises, which often have viable products and services but lack the networks and market intelligence needed to access international opportunities.

Obeng also pointed to Stanbic Bank’s presence across 21 countries as an important resource for businesses seeking to expand their trading relationships across the continent.

We have a presence in 21 countries, and we leverage that network to help our clients navigate opportunities in those markets and make it easier for them to trade across borders,” he said.

He said stronger links between Ghanaian businesses and international markets could create opportunities for companies to diversify their customer base, increase revenues and build more resilient businesses.

However, he stressed that internationalization should be approached as a growth process rather than a one-off transaction.

“Supporting businesses to trade internationally is not only about providing financing. It is about helping them understand the market, build the right capabilities, connect with buyers and have access to the appropriate financial and advisory support,”  Obeng said.

He reaffirmed Stanbic Bank Ghana’s commitment to supporting businesses as they pursue opportunities beyond Ghana, adding that building a stronger pipeline of internationally competitive enterprises would require collaboration among financial institutions, businesses and other stakeholders in the trade ecosystem.

Benedict Kwasi Obeng, Head, Business Products Solutioning, Stanbic Bank Ghana

The workshop brought together members of the disability community, advocates, and financial experts to address the unique barriers that PWDs often face when accessing formal financial services.

The initiative aimed to strengthen participants’ financial knowledge and promote greater access to banking information and services among persons with disabilities by equipping them with the tools needed to make informed financial decisions, build wealth, and navigate the banking system with confidence.

Speaking at the programme on behalf of the Acting Managing Director, the Head of Commercial Banking, Fredrick Adomako-Ansah emphasised the importance of ensuring that financial services respond to the needs of all customers.

Financial inclusion means ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to access and benefit from financial services. However, access to finance is only half the battle; understanding how to use it is what truly empowers an individual.

This is why Prudential Bank believes that by removing physical, communication, and knowledge barriers, we are ensuring that Persons with Disabilities are not just included but are given the tools to thrive financially,” he said.

Highlighting the significance of the partnership, Program Manager, Digital Futures Operations, Planning & Finance at Sightsavers International, Abdul Razak Mohammed, commended the Bank for its proactive approach to inclusion.

Financial inclusion for persons with disabilities is not just a matter of charity; it is a fundamental right. We are thrilled to partner with Prudential Bank, an institution that truly understands that inclusion means designing products, services, and spaces that work for everyone,” he stated.

He added: “Digital financial services can create opportunities for persons with disabilities to manage their finances more independently. However, accessibility must remain a priority in how these services are designed, communicated and delivered.  By equipping the PWD community with financial literacy, we are unlocking their potential to achieve economic independence and fully participate in society.”

The workshop covered essential topics such as personal financial management, the benefits of digital banking, and how to safely use the Bank’s USSD platform which is highly accessible for those who may not use smartphones. Attendees were also educated on Prudential Bank’s specific policies designed for PWDs, including priority service across all branches.

Prudential Bank’s dedication to PWDs is embedded in its recently implemented Financial Inclusion for PWDs Policy, which aligns with the Bank of Ghana’s directive to ensure equitable access to financial products. The Bank has trained frontline staff to serve customers with disabilities with empathy and dignity.

Attendees expressed appreciation for the practical insights shared and the Bank’s visible commitment to inclusivity.

The Chief Executive Officer of MobileMoney Fintech Limited (MMFL), Shaibu Haruna, has called for a shift in Ghana’s financial inclusion agenda towards economic empowerment, urging financial institutions to use digital transaction data to expand access to credit and investment opportunities for small businesses.

The Acting Managing Director of ARB Apex Bank PLC, Curtis William-Brantuo, said banks struggling to meet the threshold should develop realistic capitalisation plans, engage shareholders and explore viable funding options.

Recapitalisation” alone would not be enough to secure the sector’s future, he said, calling for stronger credit controls, improved governance and greater investment in technology.

William-Brantuo, represented by Suzan Boateng, Manager of ARB Apex Bank’s Sunyani Branch, made the remarks at the 19th Biennial General Meeting of the Association of Community Banks, Bono-Ahafo Chapter, in Sunyani.

The reforms, including the transition from rural banks to community banks, place greater emphasis on capital adequacy, risk management and operational sustainability, he said. Stronger capital positions would enable lenders to absorb losses, expand responsible lending and invest in digital services while maintaining public confidence.

But he warned that weak credit administration could undermine those gains, urging bank boards and management to tackle non-performing loans, concentrated lending and insider-related exposures.

Community banks must balance their development mandate with commercial discipline, ensuring that loans to farmers, traders and small businesses reflect borrowers’ ability to repay, he said.

The banks were also encouraged to invest in digital banking, electronic payments and transaction monitoring to improve efficiency and widen access to financial services.

William-Brantuo urged institutions to strengthen cybersecurity, staff training and customer data protection, while developing products suited to farmers, young people, women-led enterprises and small businesses.

Liquidity and technology pressures

The Bono-Ahafo Chapter Chairman, Kwasi Afram, said liquidity constraints, locked-up investments and technology-related difficulties, including problems with the T24 banking system, remained major challenges for member institutions.

He said improving deposit mobilisation and staff capacity would be important to strengthening the banks’ operations. The Chapter would continue engaging the Association’s National Secretariat, ARB Apex Bank, the Bank of Ghana and other stakeholders to address the concerns.

Its priorities for 2026 and beyond include acquiring land and constructing an office complex, strengthening the National Community Banks Women’s Association (NaCoWAS), and improving collaboration among bank chairpersons, Mr Afram said.

Building confidence

William-Brantuo said sustained deposit growth would depend on public confidence, service quality and savings products that meet customers’ needs. He urged banks to deepen community engagement, promote financial education and maintain transparency and professionalism.

He reaffirmed ARB Apex Bank’s commitment to working with community banks, the Bank of Ghana and the association to strengthen operational capacity, improve regulatory compliance and build confidence in the sector.

The meeting coincided with the celebration of 50 years of community banking in Ghana under the theme, “Celebrating 50 Years of Community Banking: Honouring the Past, Building the Future.”

Pluralistic ignorance occurs when people privately question or reject a group norm but mistakenly believe that most others support it (Mendes, Lopez-Valeiras & Lunkes, 2017). Because each person remains silent, the group’s false perception of consensus becomes self-reinforcing.

In supply chain management, this dynamic can allow outdated routines to survive. Employees, suppliers, and managers may doubt a forecast, sourcing policy, inventory assumption, or resilience plan, yet continue to support it publicly because they believe that senior leaders or other supply-chain partners endorse it. The direct literature linking pluralistic ignorance to supply chain management is still limited; research has not yet adequately connected the phenomenon’s causes and consequences to organizational management processes (Mendes et al., 2017).

When silence makes obsolete practices look rational

Supply chains depend on distributed knowledge. Information about supplier constraints, quality failures, demand changes, transport bottlenecks, and customer requirements is dispersed across functions and organizational boundaries. When people do not voice concerns, decision-makers receive an incomplete picture of reality.

Research on pluralistic ignorance in organizational settings shows that employees may suppress their genuine opinions when they believe their views are in the minority. This weakens knowledge sharing and can reduce the quality of group decisions because the adopted solution may not have genuine support across the organization (Chumg, 2024).

The same mechanism can operate between companies. A buyer may assume that a supplier accepts a delivery requirement; the supplier may assume that the buyer understands a capacity constraint; and both may avoid raising the issue because they believe the other side already has the necessary information. In supply-failure studies, these “hidden expectations” are described as a relational problem in which both parties have incomplete information about the other’s intentions and preferences (Kauppi et al., 2023). The result is not necessarily deception. It may be a shared failure to question assumptions.

This is particularly dangerous when a supply chain is successful for long enough to normalize a particular way of working. Low-cost sourcing, long lead times, single sourcing, narrow supplier relationships, or functionally isolated decision-making may become treated as common sense. The challenge is not merely to acquire new information. It is to make the organization willing to recognize that familiar knowledge may no longer fit its environment.

Unlearning is a strategic capability

Unlearning is the deliberate questioning and abandonment of knowledge, beliefs, or routines that obstruct adaptation. In supply chains, it may involve replacing adversarial supplier relationships with strategic collaboration, treating logistics as a source of business value rather than only a cost centre, or abandoning reactive risk management in favour of visibility beyond the first tier.

Practitioner evidence gathered during the COVID-19 period identified long lead times tied to offshore sourcing and “I win, you lose” supplier relationships as practices that organizations needed to reconsider (“Unlearning Supply Chain Management”, 2021).

Academic work in food supply chains makes the case more cautious. Strategic unlearning can enable product and process innovation, business-model change, sustainability, and responses to emerging customer requirements. Yet unlearning can also destroy knowledge that remains essential. Manning, Morris and Birchmore (2023) argue that organizations must manage unlearning, learning, and relearning as an integrated knowledge process rather than simply discarding the past.

This distinction matters because resilience is not the same as constant change. A resilient supply chain must know which routines are obsolete, which capabilities should be retained, and which new practices require testing before they are scaled. A 2026 study found that resilience and robustness emerged from multiple configurations of absorptive capacity, unlearning, resource reconfiguration, and supply-chain memory; no single capability was universally sufficient (Alvarenga & Andrade Guedes, 2026).

Learning across the Supply-Chain Network

Learning in supply chain management is interorganizational. It occurs between focal businesses, suppliers, customers, logistics providers, and other partners.

Silvestre, Gong, Bessant and Blome (2023) describe four forms of supply-chain learning: captive, consortium, selective, and distributed. Their concept of the “learning supply chain” goes beyond occasional training or post-event reviews. The entire network continuously develops and diffuses knowledge through different learning arrangements (Silvestre et al., 2023).

This perspective exposes a weakness in organizations affected by pluralistic ignorance. If silence is mistaken for agreement, learning networks become channels for reproducing established assumptions rather than challenging them. Learning can even be harmful when organizations absorb outdated or irrelevant knowledge. Supply-chain learning research warns that the wrong knowledge can direct a supply chain toward inappropriate actions or overload its capacity to identify information that is more relevant to its strategy and context (Silvestre et al., 2023).

The design of the network also matters. A simulation study of a multi-tier supply chain found that better communication and rewards for participating companies could reduce learning costs and increase knowledge spillovers. Training, technology support, and supplier preferences were also found to shape learning behaviour across the network (Gong et al., 2024). These findings suggest that companies cannot rely on goodwill alone. They must create incentives and communication structures that make it worthwhile to disclose problems, exchange knowledge, and challenge dominant assumptions.

Relearning after disruption

Relearning means turning revised understanding into dependable practice. A supply chain may recognize that its supplier map is incomplete, learn about an alternative source, and still fail to change its operating model. Relearning closes that gap by incorporating new knowledge into planning, contracts, routines, performance measures, and relationships.

Studies on paradox cognition and supply-chain resilience support this iterative view. A study of 277 Chinese manufacturers found that paradox cognition, or the ability to recognize and work through competing demands, enhanced organizational unlearning, which then promoted both proactive and reactive dimensions of supply-chain resilience. Market turbulence strengthened the relationship between paradox cognition and unlearning (Zhang, Zhang & Feng, 2024).

The implication is that resilience depends partly on the ability to hold competing objectives together: efficiency and flexibility, standardization and experimentation, cost control and redundancy, and local optimization and system-wide performance.

The evidence also counsels against treating unlearning as a guaranteed solution. In a survey of organizations in Germany and Austria during the COVID-19 crisis, organizational learning positively affected resilience, particularly adaptive capacity, but the proposed moderating effect of unlearning was not supported (Orth & Schuldis, 2021). The supply-chain lesson is to treat unlearning as a capability to be developed and evaluated, not as an automatic source of resilience.

Building a culture that can change its mind

Supply-chain leaders can reduce pluralistic ignorance by making disagreement visible and safe. Useful routines include anonymous challenge channels, rotating “devil’s advocate” roles, pre-mortems for sourcing and continuity plans, structured reviews of weak signals, and post-disruption discussions organized around three questions: what should stop, what should continue, and what should be redesigned?

These mechanisms work only when leaders distinguish silence from consensus. A meeting in which nobody objects does not demonstrate that a plan is understood or supported. Leaders should ask for independent judgments before group discussion, disclose uncertainty, invite evidence that would change the decision, and reward early escalation rather than retrospective blame. Such practices are consistent with studies showing that pluralistic ignorance is intensified by weak dialogue, restricted feedback, and power asymmetries, while inclusive and empowering leadership can help curb it (Mendes et al., 2017; Chumg, 2024).

Supply chains need to expose false consensus, unlearn routines that no longer fit, learn from partners and weak signals, and relearn by embedding tested alternatives. But they must preserve critical memory and avoid confusing novelty with improvement. Resilience comes from disciplined renewal: knowing when to challenge the status quo, what to retain, and how to make new knowledge usable across the entire supply-chain network.

He said domestic savings could provide a more sustainable source of funding for productive sectors if the country developed appropriate investment opportunities and maintained the confidence of investors.

Speaking at the official listing of Cocoa Capital PLC’s inaugural commercial paper in Accra on October 14, 2026, Asomaning said government alone could not meet the country’s investment needs, making collaboration among banks, capital markets and domestic investors increasingly important.

Our economic aspirations require sustained investment in agriculture, infrastructure, manufacturing, trade and technology. Government cannot finance these requirements alone. Neither can traditional bank lending or external borrowing,” he said.

He noted that although external financing would continue to support Ghana’s development, mobilizing funds locally would strengthen the economy’s resilience to currency fluctuations and international refinancing risks.

The listing marked the first issuance under Cocoa Capital PLC’s GH¢16.3 billion note programme and the admission of its inaugural commercial paper to the Ghana Fixed Income Market.

The Series 1, Tranche 1 issuance attracted approximately GH¢3.59 billion in investor demand, of which GH¢3.395 billion was accepted and allocated at an annual interest rate of 11 per cent.

Asomaning said the transaction demonstrated the potential of coordinated action among financial institutions, regulators and investors to direct capital towards economic activity.

We therefore need a financial system in which banks and capital markets are not viewed as competitors, but as complementary parts of the same architecture for growth,” he said.

The proceeds will support the Ghana Cocoa Board’s (COCOBOD) cocoa bean purchasing requirements for the 2026/27 crop season. Mr. Asomaning said timely financing would help move cocoa from farmers through the licensed buying and marketing chain to international markets, supporting livelihoods, exports and foreign-exchange earnings.

He, however, cautioned that attracting investment would depend on transparency, accountability and the ability of borrowers to meet their obligations.

Capital follows confidence, and this confidence cannot be taken for granted. It must be earned through transparency, accountability, disciplined execution and the consistent fulfilment of obligations,” he said.

Asomaning also stressed that innovative financing instruments must be supported by reforms to address the cocoa sector’s structural challenges.

He welcomed the legislative backing given to cocoa-sector reforms announced by the Minister for Finance, but urged their full and consistent implementation to provide greater certainty for investors and businesses across the value chain.

Asomaning said the success of the commercial paper programme would ultimately depend on the prudent use of proceeds, transparent administration and timely repayment.

He expressed hope that the inaugural issuance would deepen Ghana’s domestic capital market and demonstrate how collaboration across the financial sector could support productive growth.

On her part, the Managing Director of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), Abena Amoah, urged Ghanaian businesses and institutions to explore the Exchange’s capital-raising opportunities to finance their growth.

She said the GSE offered multiple financing options, including equity, corporate bonds, commercial paper and sustainable financing instruments, which businesses could use to broaden their funding sources. “We hope this will encourage other public and private sector institutions to come talk to us and raise funds locally,” she said.

Amoah further disclosed that since January 2025, Ghana’s public capital markets had mobilized about GH¢6.8 billion for businesses and institutions through equity and debt issuance.

She also announced that the GSE was preparing to introduce the GSE Academy to help companies prepare for investment, improve engagement with investors and deepen public understanding of investment opportunities and risks.

She made the call at the CXP Ghana Conference & CXX Awards 2026, held at the Labadi Beach Hotel in Accra, where she participated in a panel discussion on “How Leadership Drives Customer-Centric Transformation”.

She said organizations seeking to deliver meaningful customer experiences must move beyond listening to customers to ensuring their views influence the decisions that affect them. “Customer experience must have a seat at the table, but beyond that, it must have the necessary influence,” she said.

According to her, it is the responsibility of leaders to translate customer insights into practical improvements in products, services and business processes.

She noted that organizations often gather valuable information about customer needs and preferences but fail to use it to shape decisions. She argued that customer experience teams should be empowered to influence outcomes, ensuring that business strategies reflect what customers need.

Chidinma Braye-Yankee cited Stanbic Bank Ghana’s approach to naming its digital lending product, Instacash, as an example of how customer participation can inform business decisions.

She explained that, rather than relying exclusively on an internal naming exercise, the bank sought input from customers on what they would prefer the product to be called.

The feedback revealed different preferences, with female customers favoring a name associated with cash, while male customers leaned towards the idea of instant access. The bank brought both preferences together to arrive at the name Instacash.

She said the decision demonstrated the value of involving customers early in the product development process, even when it meant setting aside a name the organization had already considered.

We were willing to set aside a name we had already put on the product, just so customers could relate to it, understand it and appreciate it,” she explained.

For Braye-Yankee, the experience illustrates why customer participation should extend beyond surveys and consultations. Businesses must be prepared to act on what they learn, including reconsidering existing decisions when customer feedback points to a better option.

She also distinguished between good customer service and a good customer experience, noting that the latter requires organizations to examine how their operations are designed, not simply how employees interact with customers at the frontline.

She referenced Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ practice of reserving an imaginary seat for the customer in boardroom discussions as a reminder that customer needs should remain central to business decisions.

Beyond strategy, she challenged leaders to personally experience the products and services they approve for customers. She said this would help identify shortcomings before offerings reach the market and reinforce accountability for service quality.

Leaders must begin to experience what we approve. We must begin to live what we preach,” she said.

The discussion highlighted the role of leadership in making customer-centricity part of everyday business practice, rather than treating it as a standalone customer service function.