Telecel Ghana celebrated a decade and a half as headline sponsor of the Telecel Ghana Music Awards (TGMA) on Saturday night, as the 27th edition of the country’s premier music ceremony delivered one of its most memorable nights at the Grand Arena of the Accra International Conference Centre.
Black Sherif dominated the awards, taking home five awards including the coveted Artiste of the Year title for the second time in his career, powered by his sophomore album Iron Boy, which also won Album of the Year. Rapper Medikal enjoyed a strong showing of his own, winning the Telecel Most Popular Song of the Year, Best Hiplife Song, and Collaboration of the Year for his hit Shoulder, featuring Shatta Wale and Beeztrap KOTM.
The ceremony also honoured the Afrofusion duo Lali x Lola with the Telecel Music for Good Award for their #CroxItOut campaign, a breast cancer literacy initiative that has toured 21 schools across five regions of Ghana. The duo will receive a cash prize to support the ongoing campaign. A lifetime achievement tribute rounded off the night in honour of the late highlife legend Daddy Lumba.
For Telecel, Saturday’s event was as much about institutional legacy as individual accolades. The partnership began under the Vodafone brand in 2011 and continued through the company’s rebrand to Telecel in 2024, a 15-year run that has helped expand the TGMA’s genre categories, grow the TGMA Xperience Concert series to regional capitals, and introduce the TGMA in Schools initiative.
Telecel Ghana Chief Executive Ing. Patricia Obo-Nai said the commitment to music reflects the company’s belief in culture as economic infrastructure. “The creative industry is an important contributor to Ghana’s socio-economic development, and the TGMAs play a vital role in nurturing the growth of our creative economy,” she said.
Ghana’s music sector, with highlife-inspired Afrobeats serving as its biggest export driver, contributes an estimated 3% to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). That figure has been backed by rising streaming revenue for Ghanaian artists and growing international appetite for the country’s sound across film, fashion, tourism, and sports.
Telecel Group Chief Executive Officer Moh Damush led the company’s senior leadership team at the event, a signal of the weight the group places on the partnership. Charterhouse Chief Executive Officer Theresa Ayoade acknowledged the telco’s sustained commitment directly, describing Telecel Ghana and its partners as essential to keeping the awards dream alive year after year.
