On the first weekend of February 2009, the Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) will hold its annual dinner, during which it will honour the men, women and companies that had made great strides in the business sector in 2008.

The two main objectives of the award dinner are to provide an environment where members and non-members can meet and network with each other outside their business entities and to raise funds for the upkeep of the chamber. The dinner also provides a unique platform for the GCCI to recognise the commendable achievements of deserving entrepreneurs and enterprises.

Over the past two years, the chamber has embarked on a new drive to rebrand this event with a view to further galvanize the private sector operators to unanimously work towards private sector development and achieving the objectives of Vision 2020. For this reason, the GCCI has devised a new format built acrossing a prestigious award night preceded by features of nominees on various media outlets.

How nominees are selected;
In 1993, when the first award ceremony was held, the candidates for the awards were selected by an awards committee made of business personalities set up by the chamber. Albeit in place for the next thirteen years, the system was felt to be too elitist. Consequently, in 2006 a new system was instituted.

Under the new system, nomination forms are sent out to registered businesses – both GCCI members and non-members. The companies were tasked with the  responsibility of filling the forms and sending them back to the chamber for processing.

A simple task you might think but one that seemed to flummox many a business establishment. The first time this system was used there was a low vote count because because many of the businesses for one reason or the other did not send back their forms. A lot of time was also spent running after the forms, sometimes in vain.

To solve this problem, it was decided in 2007, to outsource the task of the handling the nomination process to the Economics and Management Student Association of the University of The Gambia (Ecomansa). Under the current system, forms are sent out as before, collected and then processed to determine the popular vote. The process does not, however, stop there. Because the popular vote is liable to be highly subjective, a Business Performance Index (BPI) form is issued out to the various nominees who would have been identified by the popular stage.

The BPI takes into accounts factors such as level of social responsibility, investment during the period in question, turnover and the like. The BPI and the popular vote combine then help to determine the winners of the various categories.

Past winners include Mustapha Njie of Taf Construction - who won the first Business Person of the Year award in 1993; Papa Yusupha Njie of Unique Solutions – Young Entrepreneur of the Year, 2006; and the record breaking Baboucarr Khan of Reliance – who won two individual awards (Business Person and Young Entrepreneur) with his financial institution also picking up the SME of the Year award, all in 2007. Baboucarr Khan is certainly a personality to watch out for ahead of this year’s awards as he and his company have again picked up three nominations.  

The various categories Business man of the year: A business owner who has demonstrated consistent leadership qualities, made significant investment in new areas and has significantly contributed to employment creation. Business woman of the year: A business woman who has significantly invested in new areas, demonstrated high leadership qualities, and contributed to employment creation.

Young entrepreneur of the year: Business owner between the age of 25-40 who has demonstrated leadership qualities, innovative and created employment.
Service provider of the year: A company that provides quality services with good customer care orientation such as hotels, insurance companies, micro-financial institutions, transport companies, security services, cellular companies, radios stations, restaurants, etc.

SME of the year: A profitable small or medium enterprise with a staff of 2-25 employees; such as welding companies, tailoring shops, craft markets, etc.
Industrialist of the year: Company with newest product in manufacturing or has expanded and has improved on an already existing ones.

Bank of the year: A bank with a significant amount of investment in the production, development and employment sectors of the economy.