The Royal Senchi Hotel has been adjudged ‘Indigenous Company of the year 2018’ at the first edition of the Ghana Business Awards.
The hotel was the only hospitality company among a host of other local businesses recognized at the event, which took place in Accra last week.
The Ghana Business Awards, according to organisers, seeks to bring together players in the Business industry and recognise achievements from local and international companies involved in promoting the business sector in Ghana.
Recipients of the awards were individuals and companies “that [have] played a defining role in moving their industry forward and have demonstrated achievement across a wide variety of domains including sustainability, operational excellence, innovation and others,” according to the organisers.
In an interview, Mr Latif Abubakar, a member of the organising committee said that Royal Senchi was awarded based on multiple factors, key of which was the hotel’s true representation of Ghanaian hospitality.
He remarked that the hotel’s profound use of traditional Ghanaian aesthetics and culture in its branding and services showed its taste for originality and made it an exemplary indigenous company.
“Aside from its strong local branding, which has markedly sold Ghana to the world, Royal Senchi is also doing well in terms of its profitability,” he added.
He further commented, “Royal Senchi, among other things, has employed a number of youth of the town of Senchi, in which the hotel is situated and also named after”.
The four-star hotel came out tops in a category that had five other Ghanaian owned companies including Kasapreko Company limited and Tobinco Pharmaceuticals Limited.
The Sales and Marketing Manager of Royal Senchi, Mr Emmanuel Mensah and his team received the award, which was presented by the US Embassy’s Deputy Chief of Mission, Mr Christopher J. Lamora.
Commenting on the award, Mr Mensah expressed elation at the recognition given the hotel, saying it would encourage them to keep promoting the good values of Ghana. He added, “The hotel’s belief in originality could not be embroidered”.
“We are most elated and grateful to be honoured. What this simply means is that we have to keep at what we do best, and even take it a notch further,” he said.
Ghana Business Awards
The Ghana Business Awards (GBA) is a prestigious awards programme that recognizes and rewards excellence across all sectors in Ghana.
The Award was instituted as a “platform to recognize individuals and companies that play a significant role in the growth and development of their business sector while recognizing key functions within the sector that promote growth and sustainability,” according to organisers.
Indigenous Companies Folding Up
Only a few indigenous businesses have survived in the last decade owing to many factors including lack of access to loans and unfair competition from non-native companies doing business in Ghana.
The business sector in Ghana is replete with companies owned by foreign nationals, most of which belong to Chinese, Indians and Lebanese.
By Clifford Frimpong, Accra
