Controversy Hits Ghallygold Awards

Producer cum actor, Fred Nuamah, has taken a swipe at Item 3, organisers of the maiden edition of the yet-to-be-held Ghallygold Awards, and asked them to halt the event.

Though the event is to reward excellence in Ghana’s movie industry, Fred is creating the impression that the organisers do not know the implication of what they are really doing.

The ceremony is scheduled to take place in May but Fred wonders if that is possible. According to him, though Item 3 has a good initiative, the time they have scheduled to organise the event is wrong and that it will be a waste of resources if the programme is organised.

This, he explained, will be as a result of the World Cup in South Africa, which starts June 13 to July 13 2010.

He emphasized that no company will be interested in sponsoring the awards, especially when it is being organised for the first time. “I think it will be impossible. On our event calendar now, we have the World Cup in June. You know why Ghana Music awards was held in April? They quickly did theirs because of the World Cup. I don’t think that it will be possible for a marketer or advertiser to market a programme such as Ghallygold Awards and is even the first time. If they have to do it, then they have to do it well.

In my honest opinion, they should postpone it because for them to get sponsors will be a problem. Every company now is concentrating on the World Cup. I think they should wait after the World Cup then they can go ahead,” he said on Wednesday.

The awards ceremony was scheduled to take place on March 6, this year but Rockson Adu-Boahene, CEO of Item 3, was reported to have said on Peace FM’s ‘Entertainment Review’ that the event had been postponed to May 8.

According to that report, Mr. Rockson had explained that the event could not come off on March 6 because funding for the event was still not adequate. “We are yet to confirm with a company as the main sponsor of the event. It is very difficult to secure sponsorship for events in Ghana, especially when it is new like the GhallyGold awards,” he explained.

When Beatwaves contacted the CEO on Wednesday evening, he was not too happy about the picture being created; that his company did not know what it was about. He stated that whatever his company was doing as regards the awards is also in the interest of the stakeholders in Ghana’s movie industry.

Thus, nothing bars Mr. Nuamah from calling him to suggest ideas instead of running to the media. “However, we appreciate his concerns. We are still on course and we will welcome good ideas that come aboard. I don’t think we will just get up and postpone the awards because one person comes out to express his thoughts.

Somebody could also argue that after the World Cup, companies may claim they don’t have money because they’ve just finished sponsoring the World Cup.

I appreciate his concerns, and I am not the only decision-maker as far as the awards is concerned. I will be meeting with the team so that we discuss his concern,” the CEO of Item 3 stated. Ghana’s movie industry has for the past four years been moving on without any awards ceremony. The idea of the Ghallygold Awards was thus lauded by the Ghanaian media in particular as well as movie stakeholders.

The event was officially launched at the Coconut Grove Regency Hotel in Accra on Tuesday, January 12, 2010. Whether Item 3 will continue with the awards ceremony as planned or listen to Fred Nuamah, is still unclear.