The Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare, received the Lifetime Achievement Award, while the Overall Best Entrepreneur of the Year went to the Executive Chairman of B5 Plus Group, Mukesh Thakwani, with the Executive Director of the Melcom Group, Sonya Sadhwani, taking home the Overall Best Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
They received the awards at the 13th edition of the Ghana Entrepreneurs and Corporate Executive Awards in Accra last Friday.
A citation accompanying Mr Afful’s award read: “You have contributed to the promotion of effective print media services through your sterling leadership, achievement, business excellence and professionalism in the previous year which has contributed to the success of Graphic Communications Group Ltd in supporting the economic development of Ghana.”
The Market Research Manager of the GCGL, Adwoa Oforiwaa Turkson, received the award on behalf of Mr Afful.
The Entrepreneurs Foundation of Ghana (EFG) organised the awards in collaboration with the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA) and the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and
Industry (GNCCI) to celebrate and honour successful entrepreneurs, corporate CEOs and public service CEOs who have had a significant and positive impact on the economy, sustained business performance and adhered to good corporate governance.
Some other awardees
The Ghana Greatest Entrepreneur of All time awards went to the Chairman of the Kalmoni Group, Jalal Kalmoni; the Founder and Chairman of J. K. Horgle Transport and Co. Ltd, Joseph K. Horgle, and the Executive Chairman of Delta Paper Mill Ltd and Alpha Industries Ltd, Marc Skaf, while the Lebanese Ambassador to Ghana, Maher Kheir, received the Outstanding Ambassador of the Year Award.
Economic superhighway
The Director-General of SIGA, Edward Boateng, congratulated the awardees on their contributions to the country’s economy and urged them to continue to make an impact in their respective fields.
He further urged the public sector to create an economic superhighway so that the private sector could ride on it.
“The private sector rides on the back of the public sector. Fortunately, in our situation, the public sector, in a lot of instances, focuses on job creation,” he said.
For that reason, Mr Boateng indicated that SIGA, for its part, was working with the state to create that economic superhighway by working with public sector organisations and state-owned organisations (SOEs).
To be able to do that, the SIGA Director-General said some fundamentals had to be in place first which included compliance.
“Public sector organisations need to understand that they have to pay their taxes, their key performance indicators (KPI) have to be enforced to create an enabling environment for themselves and that environment will then help the private sector to also grow,” he said.
Mr Boateng also urged the public sector to change how it operated and be mindful of its decisions which went a long way to affect the private sector.
“This is why we are hoping to create a strategic collaboration between the private and the public sector by first making sure that the public sector organisations are very strong,” Mr Boateng said.
In the last four years, he said SIGA had a lot to be proud of, particularly looking at the number of entities that were submitting their audited accounts on time and also involving the private sector in their business.