The Kitwe District Chamber of Commerce and Industry has announced that it will hold this years award giving gala. The chamber says the award giving gala is very important to the business community in enhancing value and encouraging companies to perform better.
Kitwe is Zambia’s second biggest city by population and the Chamber President Anthony Kabaghe told the Zambian Business Times – ZBT that the event is equally important to the chamber calendar as it is held annually and deserving companies are awarded in different categories.
“As you know the chamber comprises of different companies and categories, we have got these annual events were we bring all these companies. We will have our 2018 event at newly opened Garden Court hotel, on the 7th of December at 19:00 pm and we are expecting Minister of Commerce Trade and Industry Christopher Yaluma to grace the occasion.
Companies are going to be recognized and encouraged to do even better,”he said. In an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, Kabaghe added that professional bodies have been engaged to assist and assess companies short listed and the categories.
“For instance will be giving an award in Occupational Health and Safety so we have engaged our friends at Occupational Health and Safety department to do the assessment, so we give them that assignment they assess for us and they give us to say the best in this category is this. For the mines, its the same, we also engage the Chamber of Mines to assist us to assess,” he explained.
“Our members are included, we send these categories to them to say can you choose best companies, say in the category of bank of the year award who are the best. You know as a Chamber of Commerce we also work hard to give value to our members.
So as a Chamber we have to make sure we give value to our members, as you you know this is a voluntary organization, we do not force any one to belong to the chamber. We make sure that who ever comes in as a member the Chamber gives and get value from the other members,” he said.
He highlighted the fact that, in organizing the event donations were made from its members. “So like the Garden Court hotel itself, they are giving some subsidies on certain things because they are our members. In terms of sponsoring the event, we have asked for Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze sponsorships.
As people are coming to the event and as our members are coming in, they will see the brand name’s as part of our marketing activities and also in terms of an advantage for sponsoring they is just that recognition because we have to display this event has been sponsored by this company and so on. That is also good corporate social responsibility, “ he stated.
Kabaghe further disclosed that the Chamber also organises monthly Breakfast meetings for its members to discuss various topics of interest in the industry. “We invite our members to come to together and discuss on a topic of interest and a speaker is called for that particular topic.
The last meeting at Garden Court we invited the speaker from Lusaka to talk about nuclear energy. Zambia has signed an MoU on nuclear energy for scientific purposes. So it is an important topic that we thought our members should come and hear and see how they can prepare their businesses or organizations they work for.
The Chamber is a must join organization for a business to appreciate the business environment they operate in, the more we are the better we share ideas,”he narrated.
The occasion will comprise of 19 categories which include:
Mining Company of the year in Occupational Health and SafetyPresidents Award of the year, Most Innovative Company, Commercial Supply Company, Industrial Company of the year.
Other categories include Bank, Insurance company of the year, Tourism and Hospitality Company, Mining Company, Mining Contractor, Consumer Manufacturing Company, Accounting Company, Most Outstanding Corporate Company, Service Company, Business Executive, Most Popular Radio Station and Broker of the year awards
