Akua Adufa Aboagye Mintah, a journalist and entrepreneur, has won the Media Personality of the Year and Youth Leader of the Year (Religion category) at the Ghana Media and Entrepreneurship Awards 2021 (GAMEA) which came off last weekend in Accra.
The GAMEA awards seeks to celebrate hardworking media practitioners and indigenous Ghanaian businesses that are making an impact as well as contributing to the economic growth of the country.
Speaking to the B&FT after the win, Ms. Aboagye Mintah, who is a producer, a content creator and also a correspondent to the office of the First Lady of the Republic of Ghana, described the award as a testament of tireless efforts put together in ensuring that citizens are informed on current happenings in Ghana.
“I’m very happy to have won this award and for so many years I have silently worked as a producer behind the scenes, I have worked in the online space, newspapers and produced a lot of flagship programmes and I believe all these have culminated in me winning this award,” she said.
She used the opportunity to urge media houses to create an enabling environment for female journalists as well as give them opportunities to hold high positions describing that as a major challenge that women face in the media sector.
“As a woman, there are a lot of positions that you should get but as a woman they overlook these things and give these portfolios to men so I will advise that the media houses and corporate bodies consider women to occupy certain positions like head of news and head of other departments,” she said.
She said the award is an inspiration as it will inspire her to train young people in the media space while focusing more on creating content for the social and health sector. “I have interns and junior workers looking up to me, more expectant of me and so I would have to do more and put in more,” she added.
Ms Aboagye Mintah is also known for spearheading events that seek to empower the Ghanaian youth to aspire for leadership positions.
Ghana Media and Entrepreneurship Awards (GAMEA) saw about 300 nominations to a shortlist of about 100 with an average of five persons in each category. The event saw the likes of the Chief Executive Officer of Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Hajia Abibata Shanni Mahama Zakariah; French Ambassador to Ghana, Anne Sophie Avé; musician and media personality, Kwame Asare Obeng, popularly known as A- Plus; and other important dignitaries winning awards and citations and political activist respectively.
