The maiden edition of the Ghana Maritime & Shipping Awards scheduled for March 2017 at the La Beach Hotel In Accra.
The awards will, for the first time, identify and publicly recognize outstanding performers in and contributors to the country’s maritime industry, at the institutional, enterprise and individual levels.
The awards is being organized by Ninetyeightz Events, which is the brain behind the widely acclaimed National Aviation Awards held last year.
Explaining the rationale behind the awards which are now being enthusiastically anticipated by Ghana’s maritime industry, the Chief Executive and Events Director Ninetyeightz, Bergis Kojo Frimpong, says that the awards “seek to create a much needed platform for all stakeholders in the maritime industry to network and share ideas as to how they can improve as individual entities and also an industry.”
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The awards are the culmination of Mr Frimpong’s vision that the industry requires a platform for all of its shareholders to network and share ideas, and for users of shipping and wider maritime services to be aware of who has the best product and service offerings.
Ultimately, the impending awards aim to help facilitate growth in the industry. According to the Event Director, “The awards will recognize institutions, companies and individuals who have excelled in both the shipping and wider maritime industries, awarding deserving organizations that are achieving world class service within the industry.”
The awards ceremony is being organized in collaboration with some of the maritime industry’s principal regulators and facilitation institutions. The awards process itself will also involve Partner institutions which are renowned and respected for their execution of accurate and credible awards validation processes, who will be fully involved in the validation aspects of the awardees selection process. A special Awards Panel will be assembled to certify all awards winners for all categories.
The awards selection process will begin shortly with invitation for nominations. Nominations will be done on-line and in the dailies will be forwarded to our partners for validation to ensure that all nominees have provided accurate information. Where necessary, the Awards Panel and the indipendent event statisticians will validate all entries and submissions made by nominees.
A Technical Committee, appointed by the organizers, comprising people thoroughly knowledgeable in the activities in the Shipping and Maritime industry, will then prepare and present their assessment of the candidacies of the various nominees to an Awarding Board made up of experienced players in the industry.
This indipendent body which will use a pre-determined criteria to authenticate the Technical Committee’s report to determine the final award winners.
Altogether, there will be about 30 award categories. These will recognize exemplary performance in areas such as Environmental Protection, Corporate Social Responsibility, Marine Crewing & Manning, Maritime Logistics, Marine Research, as well as Safety & Security. Awards will also be conferred for outstanding performance in Sustainable Development, Maritime Education and Training, Customer Service, Ship Finance, and Technology/Innovations.
Also up for grabs will be Port & Terminal of the Year, Ship Owner/Operator of the Year, Marine Industry Supplier of the Year, Shipping Company of the Year, Terminal Operator of the Year, Marine Broker of the Year, Ship Manager of the Year, Shipyard/Ship Repair Facility of the Year, Ship Agency of the Tear, Freight Forwarder of the Year, Classification Society of the Year, Marine Tourism & Leisure Operator of the Year, Marine Bank of the Year, Marine Insurer of the Year and Maritime Law Firm of the Year.
There will be honourary awards seleted pioneers and operators in the industry, since they will be decided strictly by technical assessment. These will include awardees for Maritime Lifetime Achievement, Maritime Hall of Fame, Maritime Key Man and Woman in Shipping, Maritime Excellence Award, Maritime Legion of Honour, Maritime Personality of the Year and Maritime Editor’s Choice, which will conferred in appreciation of the value of the media to the industry.
Invitations for the nominations for the awardees will soon be publish in the media.
