‘Northern-Ghana Entertainment Awards’ launched in Tamale

Northern-Ghana Entertainment Awards, an initiative put together by Smile Multimedia in collaboration with Media Scope, Youth Icons Ghana and the Miss Afro Tourism and Culture was launched on Thursday, January 14, 2016 at the Tamale Sports Stadium.

The Awards Scheme will recognize and honor some distinguished personalities who have positively contributed to the steady growth of the entertainment industry in Northern Ghana.

In his address, the Chief Executive Officer of Smile Multimedia Agency, Alhassan Abdul Latif said the Northern Ghana Entertainment Awards will be an annual event and offer Northern Musicians, Actors, Sports and Media personalities the opportunity to compete in the various categories of the award scheme.

The NEA will also offer a unique opportunity for the various stakeholders and individuals to nominate and honor entertainment personalities who have in one way or the other uplifted the image of Northern Ghana.

According to Mr. Latif, the 2016 Northern-Ghana Entertainment Awards is a sequel of the 2014 Dakpema Entertainment Awards held at the Modern City Hotel. Adding, this will still concentrate on honoring persons who have made immense contribution and aided in the development of the entertainment industry and northern Ghana at large in the year under review from the 1st of January 2015 to the 1st of January 2016.

Mr. Alhassan Abdul Latif disclosed that Artistes, producers, managers, interested stakeholders and qualified personalities will offered the opportunity to pick nomination forms to file their works for free at their respective unions, associations, and selected media houses across the three regions of Northern Ghana or at the smile multimedia offices in Tamale.

He added a nine member committee and board will consult and select qualified nominees to compete for the various categories except the merit awards. Public votes shall take 60% whiles the academy takes 40% in the music, movie, sports and media categories.

The Northern Entertainment Awards ceremony will take place on the March 6, 2016 at a venue which will be communicated to the public soon.

Mr. Latif however thanked every individual who in one way or the other contributed immensely to the growth of the Entertainment Industry and Northern Ghana as a whole.

He said he was grateful to the media houses in the three northern regions of Ghana for their indefatigable support to the entertainment industry and urged them to do more.

?Explaining the categories to the fully packed room of musicians, journalists, stakeholders in the entertainment industry among others, the head of communications at Smile Multimedia Agency, Abubakari Sadiq said there are 14 Categories for Music, 6 Categories for movie, 7 Categories for Media, 4 for Sports and 10 Merit Awards.

He noted awardees under the Music and Film Categories will be awarded with plaques whiles the Media, Sports and the Merit Award categories shall be honored with citations.

Organizers of NEA said they wish to collaborate with the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative arts and other stakeholders in the SADA Zone of Brong Ahafo and Volta regions to stage a bigger awards event dub; The Savannah Entertainment and Arts Awards (SEA Awards) in the subsequent edition of the Award Scheme.

Stakeholders at the launch expressed their excitement about the award scheme but were quick to send a caution to the organizers of the event to ensure credibility and transparency in choosing a winner for a category with the votes and assessment.

This caution, was however eased when the General Manager of SGS-Ghana, Mr. Raphael McClure Adomey assured stakeholders that the texting will be operated by the company with transparency and credibility.

SGS-Ghana is the company responsible for the coalition of the votes in all the competitive categories. Mr. Raphael disclosed a vote will cost Ghc 0.40ps and can be done on all networks when nomination list is out.