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MTN Ghana honours Bright Media Award winners
MTN Ghana has presented prizes to winners of its 25th Anniversary Bright Media Awards Competition which was organised for journalists in Ghana.
The competition was for journalists to submit original works on the topic: MTN Ghana – 25 Years of Brightening Lives. 12 journalists received awards in various categories at the ceremony held recently at Alisa Hotel in Accra.
A three-member jury made up of Nana Kwasi Gyan Apenteng, a former Chair of the National Media Commission, Mrs. Augustina Aforo-Yeboah, former and first Female Editor of The Spectator and Mr. Maximus Ametorgoh, a Digital Media Analyst, reviewed works submitted by over 70 journalists across the country.
The entries received focused on MTN’s technological innovations, contribution to national development as well as other initiatives that had resulted in the transformation of livelihoods.
Mr. Samuel Dowuona, editor of TechGh24 online emerged the overall winner and took home a plague, a MacBook and a learning and development package worth GHC10,000.
Ama Achiaa Baafi (Graphic), Thomas Tetteh (Dynamite Fm), Samuel Dowuona and Francisca Arhin (GHOne) emerged category winners for Print, Radio, Online and Television categories respectively.
The runners-up of the various categories also received digital devices and up to GHC 5,000 worth of learning and development package.
Addressing guests at the event, the Chief Executive Officer of MTN, Mr. Selorm Adadevoh appreciated the media in Ghana for contributing to the growth of the organisation.
Professor Kwame KariKari, a Media Activist and Educator, stressing on professionalism in media journalism, commended MTN for organising the awards as its contribution to promoting high standards in journalism and public communications.
Some media umbrella bodies and individuals such as the National Media Commission, Ghana Journalists Association, Network Of Communications Reporters, Journalists For Business Advocacy ,Institute Of Economic and Financial Journalists (IFEJ),Media Foundation For West Africa, Sports Writers Association Of Ghana (SWAG),Private Newspaper Publishers Association, Nana Kwasi Gyan Apenteng and Nii Maale Adsei were honoured for their various contributions to MTN over the years.
In attendance were the Former Dean of the school of Communications Studies Prof. Audrey Gadzekpo, President of IPR, Mawuko Afadzinu, Director of the Springboard Foundation, Ms Comfort Ocran and Director Marketing and Sales at Graphic Communications Group, Mr. Franklin Sowah.
By Spectator Reporter
President John Dramani Mahama has commissioned four career diplomats as ambassador-designates to represent Ghana in four countries.
The commissioning ceremony took place on Friday, October 16, 2026.
The new envoys are Her Excellency Nana Antwiwaa Dodoo, Ambassador-Designate to Angola; His Excellency Louis Kwame Obeng, Ambassador-Designate to Qatar; Her Excellency Evelyn Korantemaa Ofosu-Amable, Ambassador-Designate to Israel; and His Excellency Jedidiah Reuben Adogla, Permanent Representative-Designate to Switzerland.
President Mahama charged them to advance Ghana’s national interests through strategic partnerships, economic diplomacy, investment mobilization, and expanded access to international markets.
He said Ghana’s diplomatic engagements must deliver tangible economic benefits, create jobs, and strengthen the country’s standing on the international stage.
The four envoys are career diplomats with over 27 years of experience.
On behalf of her colleagues, Her Excellency Nana Antwiwaa Dodoo thanked the President for the confidence reposed in them and pledged their commitment to emulate his leadership and deliver on the mandate given to them.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
The professor who spends his days exploring the intricacies of African languages found himself at the centre of a different kind of lesson on Friday, October 2, 2026. 
This time, there were no lecture notes, academic arguments or university classrooms. Instead, there was the weight of tradition, the rhythm of a community celebration and the solemnity of an oath at a royal palace.
Professor Ọbádélé Kambon, a full Professor of African Linguistics at the University of Ghana, was enstooled as Apagyahene and Sunsum Ɔsahene of Akuapem Mampong in the Eastern Region in a ceremony that brought academia and traditional authority together.
For the professor, the occasion was more than a new title. It was a moment that connected his academic interests in African languages and indigenous knowledge with the living traditions of an Akan community.
The day’s events unfolded through a series of customary observances. Kambon was first taken to the compounds of the Ɔkyeamehene and Gyasehene, where the preparations for his installation continued.
Then came the application of hyire, the white kaolin powder associated with traditional rites.
With the customary proceedings underway, the new chief was lifted onto the shoulders of celebrants and carried along the main thoroughfare of Akuapem Mampong.
The procession transformed the streets into a public stage for a ceremony rooted in the community’s traditional institutions.
There was something striking about the image, a university professor, accustomed to the measured language of academic discourse, being carried through the town in a display of traditional recognition.
Yet the celebration was not complete with the procession.
A ram was sacrificed at the Mamponghene’s compound before Kambon was taken to the palace, to swear the oath associated with his new offices.
The ceremony brought him formally into his roles as Apagyahene and Sunsum Ɔsahene.
Beyond the colourful proceedings, the titles themselves carry layers of historical meaning.
Kambon in his research explores the historical connections between Apagya and Akan political and military organisation.
Accounts cited in his work linked Apagya to an asafo, or military company, while historical writing traces an Apagya stool in Asante to the reign of Opoku Ware I in the eighteenth century.
These historical associations offer a glimpse into the institutions that have shaped Akan society over generations, although they do not automatically define the precise responsibilities of the office in Akuapem Mampong.
Kambon’s own professional life reflects a similar interest in preserving and examining African knowledge.
His work encompasses Akan language structure, naming practices across the Black world, proverbs and indigenous intellectual traditions.
Through Abibitumi, the platform he founded, he also promotes language learning, scholarship and cultural engagement.
But tradition was only one part of the story that day.
When the formal ceremony gave way to a reception, the occasion expanded into a celebration of three milestones: Kambon’s enstoolment, his promotion to full professor and his daughter Ama’s admission to the University of Ghana.
The gathering therefore carried a personal significance that went beyond the honours bestowed on one man. 
It celebrated professional advancement, the continuation of family aspirations and a connection to cultural heritage.
For a father, seeing a daughter gain admission to the same university where he holds a distinguished academic position offered another reason to celebrate.
For the professor, the moment placed family achievement alongside his own professional and traditional milestones.
Kambon had already established a place in the traditional life of Akuapem Mampɔn through an earlier installation as Banmuhene Kyidɔmhene, recorded in 2017.
His latest enstoolment adds another chapter to that relationship.
In Akuapem Mampɔn, the day brought together the university, the palace and the family table in one celebration. And for Kambon, the journey from the lecture room to the traditional procession showed how scholarship, cultural responsibility and family achievement could converge in a single memorable occasion.
By Enoch Ntiamoah Siaw
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