GCCI Business Awards – Supporting Sustainable Enterprises

16-Apr-2016 News Article Gambia News 3

As the sole representative body of the private sector, the GCCI since 1993 holds annual Business Awards to acknowledge and encourage members of the private sector who have registered remarkable success in their areas of business. This year’s Business Awards will be held on the 6^th of May 2016 characterised by a dinner at the Ocean Bay Hotel & Resort. The theme of the Award night will be “Supporting Sustainable Enterprises” which is also the adopted GCCI theme for 2015 and 2016.

The main aim of the awards is to honour organizations that demonstrate the core values of business excellence, product excellence, sustainability and commercial success in their respective industries. Furthermore, the Awards honour Gambia’s industry leaders through the acknowledgment of innovative business processes, product development, enterprise, sustainability and overall business success. The Awards recognize the important social and environmental contributions made by organizations through excellence of service, commitment to their customers, philanthropic ideals, ethical behaviour and environmental sustainability. This creates room for competition and for the business community to network and draw publicity with the aim of achieving growth in their activities.

Award categories as has been over the years are considered on the backdrop of the country’s national economic priorities and other emerging facets of the economy. The Award categories for the 2016 GCCI Business Awards are:

Young Entrepreneur of the Year
Small and Medium Enterprise of the Year
Bank of the Year
Financial Institution Supporting SME of the Year
Emerging Business of The year
Leading Business of The year
Best Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of the Year

The Business Awards comprises of two committees which are; The Technical Committee and Award Council consisting of representatives from the civil service, Academia and private sector i.e. The Ministry of Trade, Industry, Regional Integration and Employment, The Gambia Investment and Export Promotion Agency, The Gambia Bar Association, DT Associates, National Enterprise Development Initiative, University of The Gambia etc. The sole mandate of these committees are to review existing and develop new award criteria in consultation with the GCCI Secretariat; finalize and adopt award categories and criteria; review of business profiles, shortlist of nominees; review financial statements and Identification of the final winner for each category.

The business awards brings together top government officials, highly placed international personalities and institutions with relevance to business or private sector development to raise the bar on special guest.

This year’s Special Invited Guest and Speaker is Mr. Mustapha Njie, CEO/MD of TAF African Homes who will speak on “African Entrepreneur-The Challenge of Globalization”. Mr. Njie has been the Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Businessman of the Year Award Winner three times over (1993, 2004 and 2006).