Barclays Honours Staff for Exceptional Performance

The top award for exceptional performance by Barclays staff member in Ghana has been presented to Clement Otoo, who has been named the "Star" performer for 2001.

Clement now goes on to represent his country as the "best of the best" winner as a guest at an exclusive "Stars of Africa" dinner to be hosted by top Barclays Executives in London.

The visit to London not only allows the Stars the opportunity to visit the Barclays Africa head office and meet colleagues from other countries, but it also gives them a once in a lifetime whirlwind tour of London that covers everything from the Tower of London to a night at the theatre to watch Disney's "The Lion King", currently the no. 1 show in town.

Known as the Eagle Awards, the programme was set by Barclays Africa last year as the first-ever Pan-African recognition scheme for its staff in each of the African and Indian Ocean countries in which the bank operates.

The potential for a Pan-African recognition scheme was suggested by staff during a survey in 2000 and a key factor of the Eagle Awards is that the winners are nominated by their fellow staff members.

Said the Managing Director of Barclays Bank of Ghana, Kobina Quansah: "The aim of the Eagle Awards is to recognize and reward those of our staff who go the extra mile, who take pride in providing the added value that makes our bank the number one."

The Eagle Awards come in gold, silver and bronze in each country and are given for exemplary service in one of four categories: business performance; customer service; community service; staff teamwork and development of others.

Clement is the winner of a gold award in Ghana and is representing his country at the "Stars of Africa" event. An infrastructure support analyst, he was recognised for his work on the network migration project. Through personal research and testing, Clement developed a solution that allowed existing equipment to be upgraded and saved Barclays Ghana (and other businesses) over $300,000 in expenditure. The award was made under the "business performance" category.