Celebrated Hiplife musician, Okyeame Kwame, has been adjudged Celebrity Philanthropist of the Year 2018 by the National Philanthropy Forum.

The award is in recognition of the rapper’s campaign against Hepatitis B in Ghana, which he started in 2008 in partnership with MDS-Lancet Laboratories.

Each year, the Okyeame Kwame Foundation screens and vaccinates at least 1,000 Ghanaians against the deadly viral infection.

Beneficiaries of the rapper’s generosity have come from communities across the country, such as Nkawkaw, Tamale, Kumasi, Sunyani, Accra, Swedru, Ho, Koforidua and Takoradi.

Presenting the award, president of the Ghana Philanthropy Forum, Dr. Ben Ocra, said people like Okyeame Kwame needed to be celebrated.

“By this award scheme, we do not seek to pay back people like Okyeame Kwame, but to appreciate their efforts and encourage them,” he said on Thursday at the 3rd National Philanthropy Forum and Awards.

The event, held at the Accra International Conference Centre, was attended by high-profile dignitaries such as Hon. Otiko Afisa Djaba, the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Welfare.

Other award recipients included Dr. Samuel Amo Tobbin (of Tobinco Group of Companies), Kwame Sefa Kayi (Peace FM), His Royal Majesty Drolor Bosso Adamtey I (Chancellor, University Of Professional Studies, Accra), Professor Asafua and Theodosia Jackson (Jackson and Deen Foundation, Kumasi), Mr. Francis Bichnord Komla Ansong (Executive Director, Voice-Ghana), Rev. Monsignor Alex Bobby Benson (Matthew 25 House), Mr Siapha Kamara (SEND-West-Africa), Naa Golbilla David Kansuk (Paramount Chief, Nakpanduri), Mr. Dela Ashiabor (Deputy Director, Department of Social Welfare), and IMANI-Ghana.

In a brief remark after picking the award, Okyeame Kwame expressed his appreciation to the organisers for appreciating the work people and institutions “like me have been doing to help the country.”

His announced that the OK Foundation will commemorate ten years of the Hepatitis B campaign with a mammoth walk dubbed STOP STIGMA on July 28, from Ayi-Mensah to Kitase (on the Akuapem Mountains).

Okyeame said a total of 2030 people would participate in the walk, to symbolize the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) global goal to end Hepatitis B by the year 2030.

Also, he said, the OK Foundation will start a free nationwide university activation in August; and screen and vaccinate 3,000 students of the Unity Hall of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).