CEO and Editor of tech news platform, Techgh24.com, Samuel Dowuona was honoured at this year’s Ghana Information Technology and Telecoms Awards (GITTA) for his ‘Outstanding Contribution to ICT Reporting’.
It was the 11th edition of the GITTAs and Sammy Dowuona was the first ever journalist to have been honoured at the prestigious industry awards. He was among over 50 awardees for the night.
CEO of Instinct Wave, organizers of the GITTAs, Akin Naphtal cited Sammy’s consistency in supporting the tech industry with educative and inciteful articles for more than a decade as the reason for selecting him for honours this year.
Sammy has for over two decades been consistent with ICT reporting, for which he had won Telecommunications Reporter of the Year for three consecutive years in the Ghana Journalists Awards. He was also a one-time GJA’s Best Features Writer, Print.
He has, over the years, carved a reputation for himself as a go-to person for journalists and researchers when it comes to in-depth knowledge and understanding of the telecoms and technology industry in Ghana and beyond.
His articles have served as reference points for discussions in Parliament, and also for several Ghanaian scholars, both here and abroad in their academic essays. Some of these scholars even consulted him to make an input into their research.
Having worked with Ghana News Agency for over 12 years, with Multimedia for 10 years and with Black Volta Publications for over a year in editorial and managerial positions, Sammy moved on and set up Techgh24.com as a platform to support the digital Ghana Agenda by telling the story of digital innovations from Ghana and also bringing learnings from around the world to help shape policy and drive excellence in Ghana.
Techgh24.com is in its first year and it is already making waves in Ghana and elsewhere.
Sammy believes that with the support of industry players, Techgh24 will become the mouthpiece of the industry in driving friendly government policies and attracting investors to the country. He expressed his profound gratitude to Instinct Wave for the honour done him in nominating him.
Meanwhile, the GITTA organizers have hinted that a separate awards scheme specifically for journalists contributing consistently to ICT industry in Ghana and beyond is coming up in December this year.
Over 50 awards were given to organizations and individuals for their contributions towards Ghana and Africa’s digital transformation. This year’s GITTA was special, because it was a two-in-one affair – comprising of awards under GITTA categories and a separate set of awards under the Africa Digital Economy Awards.
The big winners for the night were MTN with seven awards, and Vodafone with five awards. AirtelTigo managed to walk away with one award. Glo was completely off the radar.
Whereas MTN Ghana CEO, Selorm Adadevoh emerged the Telecom CEO of the Year, Vodafone Ghana’s CEO walked away as the proud Industry Personality of the Year. Of particular note were two customer services related awards, all of which went to MTN -Customer Experience, Customer Service Team of the Year.
Minister of Communications and Digitalization, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful was honoured as the Digital Transformation Leader of the Year. Other award winners include Zeepay, Comsys, ATC, ADC, Zenith Bank, Standard Chartered, Absa, DVLA, Cyber Security Authority and many more.
