MTN, Kosmos, Unilever, Guinness, others for CSR Excellence Awards 2016

Accra, Ghana. 13^th September, 2016 – The Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), West Africa, has announced finalists for the 6^th edition of the Ghana CSR Excellence Awards, the GHACEA.

MTN, Kosmos, Unilever, Guinness, Tigo, Vodafone, Airtel, PwC, Samba Foods, Prudential Life, Odebrecht Ghana, Huawei Technologies, Databank, Coconut Grove Hotel and Fidelity Bank have been shortlisted as finalists competing for more than 20 categories in the highly-competitive Corporate Social Responsibility Awards which has become the industry benchmark since 2011.

Underlining criteria for the Awards include commitment to sustainability, beneficiary-focused initiatives, implementation of result-oriented CSR initiatives within the period under review and proven commitment to the triple bottomline (people, planet, profit). Entries are subjected to stringent verification and evaluation processes presided over by a multi-stakeholder jury.

Speaking about this year’s Awards, Mr. John Kojo Williams, Lead Project Manager for the Centre for CSR, West Africa indicated that: “The GHACEA is becoming more competitive every year and we are beginning to receive entries from sectors of industry that would usually not bother so much about CSR & Sustainability. This means that our CSR advocacy with supports from notable organisations like the UNDP, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Chamber of Commerce and others, is pushing companies to be more socially responsible and sustainability conscious.”

The Awards scheme is modelled after the European CSR Awards and entries are vetted by a multi-stakeholder jury drawn from academia, business associations, civil society organisations, regulatory agencies, international development partners and the media.

The GHACEA has injected a new paradigm into how businesses give back to society. Companies are now becoming more informed about their roles in society and beginning to weave social responsibility and sustainability around their core business mandate. This is a departure from the erstwhile ad-hoc and one-off approach to CSR.

The GHACEA was first held in 2011, when it was launched by then Minister for Trade & Industry, Hon. Hanna Tetteh, supported by the President of Association of Ghana Industries and the Chief Representative of the Japan International Cooperation Agency, JICA. The 6th edition of GHACEA (2016) was launched by the President of the Federation of Association of Ghanaian Exporters, Mr. Anthony Sikpa, supported by the Chief Representative of JICA, Mr. Koji Makino and officials from the UNDP, AGI and other stakeholders in June, 2016 at the Golden Tulip Hotel in Accra.

Top categories for the 6^th GHACEA include: CSR Company of the Year, CSR Practitioner of the Year, CSR CEO of the Year, CSR Telecom of the Year, CSR Bank of the Year, CSR Insurance Company of the Year, CSR Manufacturing Company of the Year, CSR FMCG of the Year, CSR Agrobusiness of the Year, CSR Aviation Company of the Year, CSR Real Estate Company of the Year, CSR Engineering Firm of the Year, CSR Extractives Company of the Year, CSR SME of the Year, CSR ICT Company of the Year, CSR Hospitality Organisation of the Year, CSR Consultancy Firm of the Year and the CSR Initiative/Campaign of the Year. There will be CSR Awards in Health, Education, Environment Protection, Community Development, Internal CSR, Health and Safety and a few other categories.