Gina Blay Grabs Media Entrepreneur Award

Gina Ama Blay

Gina Ama Blay, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Western Publications Limited, publishers of DAILY GUIDE, has won the Media Communications Entrepreneur Award for the year 2016.

She was one of three women entrepreneurs to win awards at the event.

Mrs. Blay was recognized for her outstanding achievements in the print industry over the years at the 7th Ghana Entrepreneur & Corporate Executive Awards in Accra on Saturday.

The award scheme, instituted in 2010, seeks to identify the tremendous contributions of the companies, entrepreneurs and corporate executives to the development of the country.

Overall Best
Dr. Nii Kotei Dzani, President of Groupe Ideal, was adjudged the Overall Best Entrepreneur for the year 2016.

He said the business community must take advantage of the various policies outlined by the government.

Dr Dzani, who thanked God for the award, stated that “one does not need a capital to start a business in Ghana but the right attitude and integrity.”

With an initial capital of GH¢37,000 in 2009, the company now has assets of about GH¢1 billion.

Earlier, Carlos Ahenkrah, the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, in a message read on behalf of Alan Kyeremanten, the sector minister, stated that the Nana Addo administration intends to move the country forward.

“If we can do this and do it properly, we need a private sector, because we have always seen the private sector as the engine of growth, and we intend to make the private sector the center for growing this economy,” Mr. Ahenkrah noted.

Gov't interventions
He said the government has evolved a 10 Pillar Strategic Plan to move the country forward in terms of industrialization and growth.

This, he said, includes a stimulus package for companies and industries that are distressed, one-district one-factory initiative, Strategic Anchor Industry, a flagship programme for industries to sustain the economy, the establishment of Specific Product Industrial Parks (free zones), Small and Medium Scale (SME) development, Export Development, Businesses Regulatory Reforms, among others.

Mr. Ahenkrah disclosed that plans are far advanced by the government to institutionalize public-private sector dialogues where the public would engage actors in the private sector.

Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, a Deputy Minister for Information, in a speech read on behalf of Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, Minister for Business Development, indicated that the government believes in empowering the private sector to ensure economic growth.

The Deputy Information Minister explained that the tax cut announced in the budget and other measures had been put in place to strengthen the capacity of banks to serve the citizens better.

Mr. Nkrumah noted that the Nana Addo administration had also launched the National Industrialization Revitalization Programme, an economic intervention programme to provide a stimulus package of over GH¢200 million to existing companies that are under distress, adding that “this intervention will create massive jobs to promote rural industrialization.”

He added that “we are of the belief that creating innovative and competitive environment will go a long way to grow the base of the indigenous Ghanaian companies and entrepreneurs to add value to what they are already doing.”

Mr. Nkrumah revealed that the vision of the government would not materialize if the actors in the private sector fail to honour their obligations.

Other winners
Eric Kututse, Chairman of First Sky Group of Companies; Emmanuel Adu-Sakodie, CEO, CDH Financial Holdings, Felix Nyarko-Pong, CEO, Unibank Ghana Limited and Emmanuel Asiedu, CEO, Gratis Foundation won awards at the event.

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By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson