Accra, Sept. 16, GNA - Produce Buying Company Limited (PBC), a licensed cocoa beans trader, has been adjudged the overall best company for the 2010 Edition of the Ghana Club 100 Awards.

At a ceremony in Accra on Thursday, nine other companies that made it to the best 10 category included Auto Plaza Limited, second, Enterprise Life Insurance Company Limited, third, Intercontinental Bank Ghana Limited, fourth, and The Trust Bank Limited, fifth.

The rest were Dan Adams Pharmaceuticals Limited, sixth, Guaranty Trust Bank Limited, seventh, Ecobank Ghana Limited, eighth, Goldfields Ghana Limited, ninth, and Zenith Bank, 10th.

The Auto Plaza Limited, and Dan Adams Pharmaceuticals Limited maintained their positions as the number two, and six companies respectively on the ranking, from the 2009 rankings, Enterprise Life Insurance Company Limited displaced Stanbic Bank Ghana Limited from the third position while Ecobank Ghana Limited moved from the fourth position to the eighth, displacing Scancom Limited to the 17th position.

The winner in the 2009 edition, Toyota Ghana Company Limited, is placed at the 16th position.

"The Ghana Club 100 Awards" instituted in 1998, is an annual event= to celebrate the top 100 companies in various sectors of the country's econo= my.

It was organized by the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) and attended by captains of industry and government officials who could not resist but to dance to music provided by the Ghana Police Band.

This year's awards, which ranked competing companies based on three factors such as size, return on equity, and growth, was unique because rural banks put up a strong showing, sweeping a substantial amount of the awards.

Twenty-three rural banks made it to the 2010 Ghana Club 100 rankings, placing between the 20th to 85th positions. South Akyem Rural Bank Limited came 20th, Kaseman Rural Bank Limited, 22nd, Amenonum Rural Bank Limited, 25th, and the Akwapim Rural Bank Limited 27th.

DHL placed 91st, SIC Insurance Company Limited 90th, Barclays Bank Ghana Limited 86th, Coca Cola Bottling Company Limited 73rd, Ghana Oil Company Limited 68th, Unilever Ghana Limited 60th, Total Petroleum Ghana

Limited 58th and British American Tobacco 56th.

The GIPC also gave some discretionary awards which went to Standard Chartered Bank, Goldfields Ghana Limited, Graphic Communications Group Limited and the Guaranty Trust Bank.

Eleven companies received awards for emerging 93Leaders of Sector Rankings".

They included Wienco Ghana Limited, IPMC, Financial Services Life Insurance Limited, Scancom Limited, Dan Adams Pharmaceuticals Limited, Goldfields Ghana Limited and PBC.

The rest are Anomabu Beach Resort Limited, Kama Health Services Limited, Guaranty Trust Bank and the Ghana Community Network Services Limited.

Mr George Kwadwo Boateng, Deputy Managing Director in-charge of Operations of PBC, assisted by other PBC officials, received the award on behalf of the company and expressed gratitude to God, farmers and other partners for standing by the company resulting in the feat.

He said PBC had put in place a dedicated and determined team to ensure effective management of its resources for better returns.

Mr Kwesi Ahwoi, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, who deputized for Vice President John Dramani Mahama appealed to public and civil servants to rise up to the challenge by playing their roles effectively, re-orient their attitudes towards business as well as remove bottlenecks to ensure the growth of the private sector.

Mr Ahwoi said the private sector would continue to receive priority attention from the state and added that the government would play its role by working to create the enabling environment for businesses to flourish.

He called on companies to employ transparency in their operations for the benefit of all.

Dr Ishmael Yamson, Board Chairman of GIPC, called on the private sector to ensure that their interests should not conflict with that of the country.

Dr Yamson told players in the private sector to ensure that their activities impacted positively on the people and the environment in which they operated.

Mr George Aboagye, Chief Executive Officer of GIPC, congratulated the award winners and all other companies that had participated in the event since its inception in 1998.

Mr Aboagye reiterated the importance of the private sector to the country's economic growth and the realization of the government's Better Ghana Agenda", adding GIPC would continue to facilitate its improvement.

He called on companies to adhere to principles of best practices in doing business as well as strive to achieve excellence.