NCB Nation Builders Award celebrates achievements

The Nation Builders Award, together with six other national awards, were announced last week Tuesday at NCB's gala ceremony, held at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel, New Kingston

Jamaica Standard Products Company Limited is a Manchester-based firm, which was launched in 1942 as a trader in produce such as goat skin, cola nut (bissy), sarsaparilla, pimento, ginger and honey. Today, it is the largest single grower and processor of coffee in Jamaica exporting to markets in Europe, United States, Japan and China. It currently produces the Wallenford Blue, Jamaica Blue Mountain, Baronhall Estate Jamaican Gourmet and Jamaica High Mountain brands of coffee.

The Innovation Award went to Spatial Innovision Limited of Kingston, which also had the distinction of being one of the nominees in the Nation Builders Award category.

Broadened scope

Clients to whom the company brings cutting-edge geo-spatial technology Caribbean-wide has now broadened considerably to include the agricultural sector and electoral services, as well as insurance, banking and retail operations in Jamaica, St Lucia, St Kitts & Nevis, British Virgin Islands and Belize.

DDB Island 1962 Company Limited walked away with the Start-Up Award, while the 2011 Women in Business Award went to Rondel Village Limited, an exclusive family-operated beachfront resort in Negril.

Mustard Seed Communities has been named the Impact Award (Organisation) recipient. Led by Monsignor Gregory Ramkissoon, the organisation has been involved in looking after the welfare of the poorest of the poor and the disabled, not only in Jamaica, but in Zimbabwe, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.

Philanthropic involvement

Montego Bay-based Giuseppe Maffessanti won the Impact Award (Individual). His philanthropic involvement in the parish of St James has seen him building a medical clinic in Hopewell; several basic schools in the western region - with the most recent being the Maffessanti Basic School in Unity Hall; reconstruction of the Mt Carey Baptist Church; donating lands for housing for 32 families and providing financing for students to study at universities locally and abroad.

Candice Carby and Natalie Fletcher, who presented the best final-year business proposal as management studies students at the University of the West Indies, won the Vision Award and seed capital of up to $250,000 from NCB to launch their proposed business. The Vision Award was made possible through a partnership between NCB and the University of the West Indies.

The NCB Nation Builders Award programme has been established to celebrate small and medium-sized businesses which demonstrate outstanding entrepreneurial performance and strong community involvement and impact. NCB also recognises the work of Jamaica's community builders and encourages the development of business ideas through these awards.