The organizers of the Ghana Maritime & Shipping have called for entries for the maiden edition of the awards which is scheduled for March at the La Beach Hotel in Accra. 

Nominations which will be done on-line and in the dailies, will be forwarded to the organisers for validation to ensure that all nominees have provided accurate information.

The Awards Panel and the independent event statisticians will validate all entries and submissions made by nominees.

Stakeholders in the industry have been directed by the organizers of the event to complete their nomination forms at www.ghanamaritimeawards.com before January 29 2017. Submission forms for the entries can also be downloaded from the awards official website.

The annual event being organized by Ninetyeightz Events (organizers of the Aviation Awards) is to create a much needed platform for all stakeholders in the maritime industry to network and share ideas as to how they can improve as individual entities and also an industry.

The awards will, for the first time, will recognize institutions, companies and individuals who have excelled in both the shipping and wider maritime industries, awarding deserving organizations that are achieving world class service within the industry.

It is being organized in collaboration with some of the maritime industry’s principal regulators and facilitation institutions.

The awards process itself will also involve partner institutions which are renowned and respected for their execution of accurate and credible awards validation processes, who will be fully involved in the validation aspects of the awardees selection process.

A special Awards Panel will be assembled to certify all awards winners for all categories.

There will be about 30 categories which will recognize exemplary performance in areas such as Environmental Protection, Corporate Social Responsibility, Marine Crewing & Manning, Maritime Logistics, Marine Research, as well as Safety & Security.

Some of the categories include Port & Terminal of the Year, Ship Owner/Operator of the Year, Marine Industry Supplier of the Year, Shipping Company of the Year, Terminal Operator of the Year, Marine Broker of the Year, Ship Manager of the Year, Shipyard/Ship Repair Facility of the Year and Ship Agency of the Tear.

Others are Freight Forwarder of the Year, Classification Society of the Year, Marine Tourism & Leisure Operator of the Year, Marine Bank of the Year, Marine Insurer of the Year and Maritime Law Firm of the Year.

There will be honorary awards selected pioneers and operators in the industry, since they will be decided strictly by technical assessment. These will include awardees for Maritime Lifetime Achievement, Maritime Hall of Fame, Maritime Key Man and Woman in Shipping, Maritime Excellence Award, Maritime Legion of Honour, Maritime Personality of the Year and Maritime Editor’s Choice, which will be conferred in appreciation of the value of the media to the industry.