Wa, April 15, GNA – The Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), one of the leading media organisations in Ghana, has organised an awards ceremony for its agents and vendors in the Upper West Region.
Four persons, including a woman and a person with disability, were awarded prizes for their hard work and contribution to the success story of the company.
Three of the awardees took home a certificate and Graphic souvenirs while Mr Ahmed Razak, who won the ultimate prize, took home a Mutt decoder and a dish in addition to a certificate and souvenirs.
Mr Kenneth Ashigbey, Managing Director (MD) of GCGL, congratulated the award winners and challenged them to work even harder to win bigger prizes next year.
He said the rationale for giving the awards was to ensure that the agents and vendors felt part of the team and, therefore, be motivated to give off their best.
Mr Ashigbey, who was accompanied by Mr Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafoh, General Manager of Newspapers, said the awards ceremony was also a way of creating a common platform for management to interact with the agents and vendors to find out their challenges and see how best they could assist to enable them to improve on their services.
Delays in getting the paper to the region, shortages, inability of some agents and vendors to return unsold papers on time for accounting purposes and the inability of GCGL to make statement of accounts available to the agents and vendors on regular basis were some of the challenges facing the company.
The MD acknowledged that getting the paper to the region on time was the biggest challenge facing the company but said management would hold discussions with O. A. Transport Services and Metro Mass Transport (MMT) to see how best they could collaborate to address that challenge.
Mr Ashigbey said packaging of papers to be transported to the regions would also be improved to prevent stealing which leads to shortages.
He said management would also put in place mechanisms to ensure that statement of accounts would be made available and accessible to agents and vendors in all regional offices across the country.
On the welfare of the agents and vendors, the MD encouraged them to join the Social Security and |National Insurance Trust voluntary contribution scheme and contribute to secure their own future and that of their children.
He said there was a Graphic Scholarship Scheme available to all GCGL staff as well as agents and vendors and urged those in the Upper West Region to take advantage for their children to also benefit from the scheme adding that two vendors currently had their children benefiting from the scheme.
Mr Ashigbey said the registration of all staff under the National Health Insurance Scheme had been extended to cover the agents and vendors and urged those in the region to get registered.
Naa Michael Bagah, a traditional ruler and the former Northern Regional Zonal Manger of GCGL, who chaired the function, expressed concern about the Daily Graphic not giving the necessary space and publicity to stories coming from the region.
He appealed to management to see to it that this concern was addressed to boost interest of people from the region in buying the paper to increase sales.
Naa Bagah suggested that top customers be identified from each region and included in the award scheme to encourage people to continue buying the paper.
Mr Razak, the ultimate prize winner, thanked the MD and the entire management of the company, on behalf of the awardees, for recognizing their contribution to the success story of the company and pledged that they would continue to work hard for the company to chalk greater successes in future.
GNA