Graphic rewards Tema newspaper vendors and agents
The Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) rewarded its newspaper vendors and agents at a ceremony in Tema on Sunday.
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The event was in line with the company's objective to deepen its relationship with the vendors and the agents who are an integral part of its operations.
Seven vendors and sub-vendors were rewarded for excellence, loyalty and dedication to the company’s newspaper vending policy.
The winners took home items ranging from rice cookers, microwave ovens, table-top refrigerators and flat screen television sets.
Ms Mercy Abbey of Sakumono was adjudged the overall best vendor for 2015, having made the most sales in the year under review.
She took home a 32-inch LED television set.
Mr Samuel Nkansah, who also doubles as the spokesperson for the vendors and agents in Tema, came second and received a table-top refrigerator as his prize.
The third position went to Ms Lilian Yevugah of Ashaiman, who took home a 24-inch LED television set.
Mr Stephen Piddah and Mr Joseph Koranteng won the best sub-vendors awards, while veteran vendor, Ms Mary Kyei, won the Managing Director's special award for loyalty and adherence to the GCGL vending policy.
Speaking at the event, the Director of Human Resource and Administration at the GCGL, Ms Peggy Addo, indicated that the awards scheme had been instituted to appreciate the vendors and agents of the company’s products.
She commended the vendors and agents for their loyalty over the years and urged them to work even harder in the coming years.
The vendors and agents
Scholarships
Ms Addo asked the vendors to take advantage of the scholarship schemes that existed for their children.
The scheme, which she said had been in existence over a decade, had provided financial support for many vendors’ children across the country to access education at the second-cycle level.
While most of the vendors in the Tema Zone had complained that they had never benefited from the package, thereby killing their interest in the scheme, Ms Addo indicated that there had been times when in a whole year no vendor applied.
“We do not look at zones or regions when we are awarding the package. Once your child has secured the needed grade of aggregate eight to 24 and passes our interview assessment, the child is awarded the scholarship”, she told the vendors.
She, therefore, encouraged the vendors who had children in junior high schools to endeavour to apply to reduce their financial burden.
Ms Addo also outlined the progress being made by the company to digitise the various newspapers, in line with technological advances which were impacting on newspaper sales globally.
She told the vendors that the GCGL was working to build an online presence, which she believed could be a major revenue source for the company.
The Spokesperson of the vendors in Tema, Mr Samuel Nkansah, said that the late arrival of the newspapers at the newsstands was impacting negatively on their sales.
“Often when the quota for the Tema Region is increased, our expectation is that the papers will arrive early, so that we can meet industrial workers before they begin work. However, those are the days the paper could delay till about 9 a.m. In some cases, we end up receiving our consignment at midday”, he said.
He appealed to the management of the company to endeavour to address the challenges involving the transportation of the newspapers to the zone which covers Tema, Ada to Battor and Sogakope.
The Tema Business Manager of the GCGL, Mrs Eugenia MacCready, in her welcome address, challenged the vendors to be motivated by the feat achieved by the award winners.
She expressed the hope that the scheme would motivate them to work extra hard in the coming years.