Veteran Journalist & Managing Director Point News Paper
By Mustapha Ceesay
The Managing Director of The Point Newspaper is deeply honoured and overwhelmed by the Africa’s Most Respected CEOs’ Award conferred on him on 1st June.
“I am deeply honoured [and] overwhelmed to win this Africa’s Most Respected CEOs’ Award in the media fraternity. It was a tough competition because I had tough opponents like people from Nigerian, Kenya, South Africa, [and] Ghana. It was a tough competition but thank god with my profile, I was able to make it. I should thank my compatriots and also all the people from America, Asia and all the people who have voted for me,” Pap Saine revealed to Kerr Fatou in a recent interview.
He said the award is a big boost as well as a big challenge to his life and career. Pap wasted no time to dedicate the award to the country, saying “the win is not for me, but it is for The Gambia because we have 55 countries in Africa and it was good The Gambia emerged victorious on this occasion.”
The co-founder and Managing Director of the Westfield based local newspaper along four others from Kenya, Ghana Nigeria and South Africa were the distinguished CEOs nominated for the 2021 Africa’s Most Respected CEOs by The African Industry CEO Awards organisers.
The awards is being organized by The Business Executive magazine, a leading periodical magazine covering economy, business, finance, investment and socio-economic development in West Africa.
The nominees are voted for and the person with more votes is declared the winner. That means he got more votes than his colleagues from Nigerian, Kenya, South Africa, and Ghana, respectively.
The Point Newspaper boss used this as an opportunity to advise young journalists to be dedicated, love the job, have passion for the job and be always committed to making an impact in society
“It is a good thing to have this kind of award and I advised all the youth especially young journalists to be dedicated, to love the job, to have passion for the job and always be committed to making an impact and role model in society. It is not an easy thing to be a journalist because it requires a lot of commitment, love and dedication for the job. So I am wishing the young journalists all the best and am urging them to take this noble profession seriously,” Saine advised.
The award will be in the form of a plaque and a certificate at a ‘cream de la cream’ red carpet Gala award night, scheduled to hold on 17th July 2021 at Hyatt Regency Hotel in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates [UAE] at 6:00 pm. Saine will be provided with luxurious accommodation, world class services, global and African investment opportunities, conferences, tours of various sites in Dubai and several other packages during your stay in Dubai. The veteran journalist is expected to be in Dubai on 15th July 2021.
Saine for the past decades, has been working in the media making great sacrifices for press freedom to triumph. Certainly, those sacrifices of his haven’t gone unnoticed both nationally and internationally. From 2006 to date he has received five International awards. Thus makes him a global icon of press freedom and accustomed to winning such awards.
In 2006 in Germany, he won an international award on press freedom- Johanna Philip price foundation. In 2010 in Australia , he was nominated world press freedom hero. In 2014, the same international institute awarded him world press freedom hero. Then, the organisation dedicated him a book which was very detailed about his profile with nine [other] African heroes. The same year, the largest newspaper in Zambia- The post, conferred on him an award for press freedom hero. In 2019, Black American journalists recruiting the 50 states of America dedicated him man of the year award.