A total of 13 enterprises and institutions have been recognised for their exemplary conduct, commitment and contributions to various aspects of environmental management, occupational health and safety considerations in the discharge of their professional duties in Ghana.
The occasion was the second edition of the Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) Awards ceremony held at the Tang Palace Hotel in Accra over the weekend.
Winners at this year’s edition of the event included Interplast Ghana, the National Road Safety Commission, Newmont Ghana, Nationwide Medical Insurance, Ethiopia Airlines, Twellium Industries, Chiropractic & Wellness Centres, Simart Pharma and Amen Scientific Herbal Hospital.
The awards are organised and hosted by The Business Executive Magazine, a monthly publication that covers economy, business, finance, investment and socio-economic development issues across the West African sub-region, leveraging on a collaboration with the Federation of West African Chambers of Commerce and Industry, FEWACCI.
Instructively, four of the winners were EHS consultancy firms who were recognised for their efforts in capacity building for corporate Ghana enabling companies to achieve legal compliance and international certifications. The four were HS+E Consulting Ghana, Fame Consult, Kel Tec Consulting and Eschol Safety and Health Consult.
In welcome address read on behalf of Paulette Kporo, Publisher and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of The Business Executive Magazine, she stated that issues of environmental management, occupational health and safety have only recently become part of the mainstream of corporate activity in Ghana, since hitherto attention on these aspects were mainly restricted to solid mining and more recently, oil and gas.
She also explained that “we decided that as part of our effort to encourage compliance and commitment to HSE regulations and standards we would spread our net and therefore we have deliberately not given second awards to any enterprise that we conferred awards on at the inaugural edition last year, even though some are actually deserving.”
Importantly, she also explained that the organisers deliberately tried to focus on local companies, rather than the multinationals who lead in HSE compliance and commitment, as a way of encouraging them.
In her key note address, Elizabeth Sackey, the Deputy Regional Minister for Greater Accra, called on corporate Ghana and all stakeholders to show greater commitment to HSE compliance for the benefit of the country as a whole. She congratulated the organisers for instituting the awards as a means of encouraging commitment to HSE issues and the awardees for serving as role models for their peers to emulate.
The EHS Awards were introduced in 2016 as an annual scheme to provide deserved public recognition for enterprises and institutions whose conduct in these areas is exemplary and to encourage Ghana’s private sector in general to step up their efforts with regards to these aspects of their activities.
BY Melvin Tarlue