The Tobinco staff receiving the awards
The Executive Chairman of the Tobinco Group of Companies, Elder Samuel Nana Amo Tobbin I, has been adjudged the ‘C.E.O. of the Year’ at the just-ended Ghana Manufacturing Awards.
He shrugged off competition from other hard-working CEOs to win the coveted awards at a ceremony held at the Kempinski Gold Coast City Hotel in Accra over the weekend.
Nana Amo Tobbin I, an enterprising businessman, has established about 11 companies under the Tobinco Group of Companies, and the companies have given employment to thousands in Ghana and West African countries where the group operates.
Apart from the ‘C.E.O of the Year’ award, the leading producer of pharmaceutical products in the sub-region, Entrance Pharmaceutical and Research Centre, a member of the Tobinco Group, also won the ‘Manufacturing Company of the Year’ – the ultimate prize.
The Entrance Pharmaceutical and Research Centre competed with GIHOC Distilleries Company Limited, the Coca-Cola Bottling Company Limited of Ghana, BlowChem Industries Limited and the Guinness Ghana Breweries Limited.
The citation recognized the efforts of Entrance Pharmaceutical and Research Centre in the fight against Covid-19 with the production of hydroxychloroquine, an endorsed medical product by the World Health Organisation for the treatment of Covid-19 patients, which were presented to the government last month to help fight the pandemic.
Receiving the awards on behalf of the companies and Nana Amo Tobbin I, the Managing Director (MD) for Entrance Pharmaceuticals and Research Centre, Kwadwo Asare Twerefour, said the awards would motivate them on to do more for the country and the sub-region.
The Deputy Minister for Trade and Industries, Robert Ahomka Lindsay, who was the Guest of Honour at the event, commended all the 32 winners and all manufacturing firms in the country for their performance despite the Covid-19 troubles and urged them to unite and push Ghana’s development agenda.
“To all winners, I say ‘Ayeeko’; well done. We expect more. The journey is clear that Ghana has a future and the future lies on industrial transformation and change, and you as the manufacturers are one of the keys players,” he said.
Entrance Pharmaceuticals and Research Centre recently presented 1,000 courses of hydroxychloroquine worth over GH¢100,000 and 18,000 bottles of Foligrow to the Ministry of Health (MOH) to help fight the pandemic.
The valuable items were received by the Deputy Minister of Health, Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye, in Accra on June 17.
Covid-19 patients treated with hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin are said to recover quickly but the drugs were not available locally on a large scale aside from the high cost on the international market.