Chairperson for Public Relations Association of Malawi, Lewis Msasa, says Public Relations as a profession is key to management of corporate affairs of an organisation.

Msasa said time has come for the profession to raise the bar so that its professionals should deliver their respective roles in accordance to set code of ethics. He was speaking in Blantyre when FDH Bank donated K1 million as its contribution towards its Annual General Meeting slated later this month.

The Chairperson observed that lack of an organised body for all PR practitioners in the country created a big gap in the profession but with the rejuvenation of the association he believes the profession is set to another level.

“We are very excited and I think it’s a demonstration to the fact that FDH has trust in us and I must say that it’s a first bank to make such a donation and I hope other banks will follow suit because we have members of our association working there. This donation will help us to ably launch the association and organize our meeting at the end of the month. Our organization has been affected by negativity for a long time. Most people think that Public Relations is just organizing events but it cuts beyond that. It is a management profession and PR managers are critical even in crisis management,” said Msasa.

On his part FDH’s Head of Marketing and Communications, Levi Nkunika said as a corporate citizen FDH Bank saw it fit to contribute to the launch of PR Association in the country.

“We felt duty bound to support the association so that they establish a secretariat, when that happens it will benefit most institutions and have a positive impact on the economy. These professionals as alluded to by earlier speakers are crucial in an organisation as they manage relationships with key stakeholders and we feel having a strong secretariat will also benefit the corporate world,” said Nkunika.

According to FDH’s motto “Grow with Us” the bank has pledged to engage in a number of corporate social responsibility initiatives as a way of giving back to the market in which it operates.