Seven distinguished African personalities have received awards at the maiden Africa Prosperity Champions Awards, organised by the Africa Prosperity Network (APN) for the 2024 edition of the Africa Prosperity Dialogues (APD).
The awards ceremony was held at the Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City in Accra on Friday (26 January 2024), under the patronage of the President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and many other dignitaries from across the African continent and Global Africa.
All the award recipients registered their pleasure to Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, the founder and executive chairman of the Africa Prosperity Network, organiser of the APD and Africa Prosperity Champions Awards (APCA), for the honour done them.
They pledged to continue in their various endeavours which led to the recognition and to continue to spearhead the transformation agenda of the African continent in their individual sectors of activity to achieve the prosperity of Africa and all her peoples.
The first award category, the Social Infrastructure Award, went to Julius Mwale, the principal of Mwale Medical and Technology City (MMTC) in Kenya.
MMTC is a US$2 billion, community-owned, sustainable city with 35,000 residents and serves as proof of concept for the development of sustainable smart cities across Africa.
Construction work began on MMTC in 2014. The development includes a host of facilities such as the 5,000-bed Hamptons Hospital.
The second award, the Young Entrepreneur Award, was received by Oluwatosin Oluwole Ajibade, better known by his stage name, Mr Eazi. Mr Eazi is a Nigerian singer, songwriter and record executive. He is the pioneer of banku music, a fusion of sound he describes as a mixture of Ghanaian highlife and Nigerian chord progressions and patterns.
The Nation Builder Award, the third of the day, was given to Alassane Ouattara, the President of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, and was presented by John Agyekum Kufuor, the former president of the Republic of Ghana.
Ouattara has been president of Côte d’Ivoire since 2010. An economist by profession, he worked for the International Monetary Fund and the Central Bank of West African States. He also served as the prime minister of Côte d’Ivoire from November 1990 to December 1993, appointed to that post by the Ivoirien founder president, Félix Houphouët-Boigny.
Professor Benedict Okechukwu Oramah picked up the Financial Leadership Award, which was presented to him by Wamkele Mene, the secretary general of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat. Professor Oramah assumed the position of president and chairman of the board of directors of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) on 21 September 2015.
Under his tenure as president and chairman of Afreximbank, Professor Oramah has supervised extraordinary financial investments on the African continent across various sectors of the economies of member states. Under his leadership, Afreximbank has recently established offices in the Caribbean as it expands its activities to include Global Africa, Africa’s sixth region.
The Global Africa Leadership Award went to Mohamed Irfaan Ali, the ninth president of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana. Dr Ali was sworn in as Guyana’s executive president on 2 August 2020.
The sixth award, the Global Africa Champion Award, was given to Baroness Patricia Scotland of Asthal. The Rt Hon Patricia Scotland KC is the sixth Commonwealth secretary general. She is the second secretary general from the Caribbean and the first woman to hold the post.
The last award category, Industrialist of the Year Award, went to Mohamed M Abou El Enein. The award was presented to him by Ibrahim Mahama, founder of Engineers & Planners and chief executive officer of Dzata Cement Ltd.
Mohamed Abou El Enein is a renowned Egyptian businessman, investor, public figure and accomplished politician. He is the founder and chairman of the Cleopatra Group, a company that has established many major projects all over Egypt. He is also the deputy Speaker of Egypt’s House of Representatives.
