The Tema Regional Chapter of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) has held its maiden awards ceremony for journalists in Tema with a call on media personnel to lead the campaign for restoring Tema to its past enviable status as the industrial heartbeat of Ghana.
Held under the theme “Addressing the woes of industries, the role of stakeholders and the media” the ceremony was graced by a number of high profile personalities from the inky fraternity, the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), government officials amongst others.
In all, eight journalists were awarded for their in-depth reports in the areas of industry, environment, fisheries, water and sanitation, road safety, health, finance and maritime reporting.
Citi FM/TV‘s Tema correspondent, Elvis Washington had two awards and was the only journalist who won awards in two different categories.
He emerged winner in the best labour and industrial reporting category with a story he did on the state of the Aveyime Rice farm, now known as Prairie Volta Limited, which had been abandoned and best road safety reporter of the year 2018 with a story he did on the emergency response unit on the Tema-Accra motorway which was not in good shape.
Other journalists who won awards include Evelyn of Business and Financial Times, who was awarded the best financial reporter of the year 2018, Lilly Ahulu, best Environmental Reporter of the year 2018, Benjamin Glover of Daily Graphic, best reporter for Sanitation and open defecation, Elizabeth French of GTV also won the best reporter in Health award with a story she filed on sickle cell disease.
The rest are Dela Russell of Daily Graphic who won the best Maritime Reporter and Josephine Antwi Danso of TV3 winning the Best fisheries report award.
Five senior journalists within the Tema Region also received honorary awards.
In his welcome address, the chairman of the Tema Regional Chapter of the Ghana Journalists Association, Dominic Hlordzi emphasised the need for addressing the numerous challenges confronting industries in Tema considering the crucial role the city plays in national revenue generation.
“From the days of Ghana’s first president, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah till date, Tema has been key in national revenue generation. It is said that over half of the nation’s revenue is collected by the Ghana Revenue Authority from Tema.”
The keynote speaker, Dr. Dawson, who is the Tema Regional chairman of the Association of Ghana Industries bemoaned the way many companies in Tema which used to be pivotal in the country’s development have either collapsed or gone into foreign hands.
On his part, the Deputy Minister of Transport who doubles as the Member of Parliament for Tema East, Titus Glover in commending the GJA executives for including the road safety awards category announced that about 1,500 people lost their lives through road crashes from January to September of 2019 alone.
He expressed worry over the high spate of indiscipline on the country’s roads especially involving the use of commercial motorcycles popularly known as Okada.