44 industry leaders have been honoured at the 13th edition of the Ghana Entrepreneur and Corporate Executives Awards organised by the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Ghana.

The awards ceremony seek to celebrate and honour entrepreneurs, corporate, and public service who have made significant impact on the economy, sustained business performance and adhered to good corporate governance principles and demonstrated outstanding leadership and significant business success in their respective fields over the past years.

The event held at the Labadi Beach Hotel on Friday was on the theme: “Promoting Business Cooperation between Private and Public Sector Development in Ghana”.

It brought together industry leaders and professionals to network and discuss strategies for fostering business cooperation between the private and public sectors in Ghana.

Winners

The Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare, received the Lifetime Achievement Award; the Outstanding Ambassador of the Year was the Lebanese Ambassador to Ghana, Maher Kheir, while the Greatest Entrepreneur of All Time went to the Executive Chairman of Delta Paper Mill Ltd and Alpha Industries Ltd.

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 and the Director-General of the Social Security & National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) winning the Outstanding Public Service Personality Award.

The Managing Director (MD) of Engen Ghana Limited, Brent Nartey, won the Most Promising Corporate CEO; the MD of ABSA Bank Ghana, Abena Osei-Poku, received the Outstanding Corporate CEO award while the MD of Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) was the Outstanding Corporate CEO Award-Print Media Service.

The CEO of the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA), Dr Efua Asabea Asare, received the Outstanding Public Service CEO Award – Trade and Export Development Sector; the CEO of the National Identification Authority (NIA), Prof. Kenneth Agyeman Attafuah won the Outstanding Public Service CEO Award- Digital Information Technology Sector; the CEO of Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Yofi Grant, won the Outstanding Public Service CEO Award-Business and Investment Development Services while the CEO of BOST, Edwin Provençal, received the Outstanding Public Service CEO Award- Petroleum Storage and Transportation Sector.

Government interference 

The Founder and President of the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Ghana, Sam Ato Gaisie, said SMEs were the backbone of every economy therefore it was necessary as a country to look at how best entrepreneurs could be supported to compete with entrepreneurs in Africa.

However, he mentioned the change of government as a major challenge that interfered with the growth of many entrepreneurs in the country.

“There is the need for us to look at how best we can support our entrepreneurs to get to the level of Dangote. But another problem we have as Africans is that the change of government sometimes affects some of these companies. There should be a system where the government is not allowed to interfere in the operations of businesses in the country,” he added

Creating enabling environment

Congratulating the awardees for their immense contribution to the country’s economy, the Director-General of State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA), Edward Boateng, said “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 explained that SIGA 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, he 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.

SOURCE: GraphicOnline