There Should Be A Body To Vet Award Schemes In Ghana — Kojo Soboh
One of Ghana’s young CEO’s, Kojo Soboh, has said that there should be an official body in Ghana to regulate and validate the credibility of award schemes in Ghana.
The CEO of EMY Africa who was recognised among the top 10 hospitality and tourism influencers in Africa for 2022 by Hospitality Awards Africa, made this statement to host Kwame Dadzie on Joy FM’s Showbiz A-Z — that the reason for the stream of awards in Ghana is getting out of hand.
According to Mr. Soboh, award schemes are meant to honour and appreciate the efforts of deserving personalities who have made little or visibly significant contributions to society but some organisers now see the scheme as ‘money-making venture’, so they are not meticulous enough in their efforts to ensure quality organisations.
“I think that we have some really good award schemes, and then we have people who think that it is a money-making venture so they just come and just do anything and just get away with it”, he said!
He believes there should be vetting institutions because some organisers do not have the prerequisite selective knowledge to make proclamations about who deserves to be awarded yet they set up schemes to issue awards.
“So for me I think that there should be an institution that will vet award schemes and then they will not just give anybody the certificate or the permission to just do awards. Because what are you awarding?
And position are you in to be able to say this person is the best in this or the best in that. There should be some regulation because the influx of award is just getting too much,” he added.
Mr. Soboh commended Vodafone Ghana Music Awards, the 3Music Awards, the Glitz Awards, and his own EMY Awards as some of the award schemes which are “very well represented and people respect”.
Over the years, many Ghanaians have had concerns about the rising number of awards schemes in Ghana and how these schemes are exploiting nominees and fans. Some are even of the view that any scheme that demands ‘money-votes’ should no more be tolerated.
