Cape Coast-Ghana, Nov 11, GNA – The Asaase Broadcasting Company Limited, owners of Asaase Radio, has launched an awards scheme to promote businesses and spur sustainable business development in the Central Region.
The ‘Central Region Business Awards’, the maiden edition of which will be held in 2023, seeks to recognise, celebrate and reward excellence in business.
It would be grouped into 20 categories including manufacturing, retail, health, hotels and restaurants, banking and finance, insurance, pharmaceuticals, tourism, and One District One Factory.
The awards will also crown the overall best business personality of the year in the region.
The launch of the Business Awards and Dinner Night held in Cape Coast was characterised by glamour and picturesque scenes.
The event was graced by prominent personalities and business moguls including Odeefo Amoakwa Buadu VIII, the President of Central Regional House of Chiefs; Mrs Justina Marigold Assan, the Central Regional Minister; Nana Kwame Adu VI, the Tufohen of the Oguaa Traditional Area, Mrs Bernice Mensimah Ackon, a Cape Coast District Court judge, and Professor Samuel Ato Duncan, Executive President of Centre of Awareness Global Peace Mission (COA-GPM).
On the occassion, COA Mixture, Becky Kay Restaurant, Republic Bank, Melcom Ghana, and Franko Trading Enterprise won advertising airtime prizes in the sum of GHS60,000 to be redeemed in three months.
Mr Gabby Okyere Darko, Executive Chairman, Asaase Broadcasting Company, indicated that the decision to support businesses in the region through the awards was because the region represented the future of Ghana’s economy.
He observed that Central region was immeasurably endowed with riches and resources, which needed deliberate and conscious support to reach its full potential to steer the country on to a fast development trajectory.
He extolled the region for its historic role in the country’s politics and education development, adding; “this region is special because special things happen here.”
Mr Darko noted, for instance, that tourism was a goldmine for the region and therefore, it must be exploited to the peak with the deserving levels of investment and social values.
“We must see where our priorities are. Tourism is key and if it is, then it should not take more than three or four hours to get here from Accra for instance. Something must be done,” he said.
He said Asaase Broadcasting Company was only interested in what politics and policies could bring to help the nation develop.
“It is our desire to put businesses here on the national and international maps. We want to be at the centre of development in the region and so we need you to support us.
“Whatever we can do, we will do to support businesses, culture, education, health and peace in the region,” he said.
Mr Prince Moses Ofori-Atta, the General Manager of the Company, said it had an agenda to push the development and progress of the region and the nation through their programming and corporate social responsibilities.
He emphasized that the idea behind the awards scheme was to celebrate achievements in the business space and announced that the scheme would be replicated in Tamale and Kumasi.
He said it was their hope to establish a nationwide product that would raise the bar of quality broadcasting in Ghana.
“The vision is to be the most trusted media voice of Africa with strong values of serving accurate, trustworthy, creative, Pan African, timely and well-research content,” he added.
Mr Ofori-Atta said Asaase Foundation, the NGO arm of the organisation, was working to send support to underserved people across the country, indicating that the foundation had already provided dialysis machines for hospitals in the Upper West and Bono regions in the last 10 months.
Odeefour Buadu commended the media organisation for instituting the awards scheme barely three months after the Central Business Expo, which brought to the fore the business potential of the region.
Considering the potential demonstrated at the business expo, he said it was not surprising that the region was no more classified among the poor regions but among the rich regions in Ghana.
“If we consider the economic potential that we have, then there is every reason to believe that we can do our bits to ensure that we can accelerate development in the region.
“How successfully we do this will depend on how well we all contribute, and it will depend on all stakeholders including Asaase Radio,” he said.
For her part, Mrs Assan, indicated that the purpose of the award scheme was in line with her vision as the Regional Minister to make Central region the business and investment hub of the country.
She pledged the commitment of the Regional Coordinating Council to support the media organisation in its agenda.
“We are poised to make sure we get every businessman and woman from the region to invest here. We need to begin to sing our own song and dance to it well.
She commended Asaase Radio for being democratic and non-partisan in their content delivery.
