The ceremony featured the presentation of four awards at both the regional and national levels:

1. NCB Innovation Award - this salutes a business that has implemented new ideas using technology to create a competitive advantage in its marketplace.
2. NCB Start Up Award - recognizes a business that has been in operation for a minimum of twelve months to a maximum of three years with commendable business performance and strong community impact.
3. NCB Women in Business Award – Introduced this year, this award salutes an innovative female business leader who is a proven positive influence on other women in business.
4. NCB Nation Builder Award – The premier award which highlights outstanding entrepreneurial performance by a business (not a start up), and most notably where there is a clear contribution to community development.
   

Keynote speaker, the Hon. Bruce Golding in his address commended NCB on the initiative stating “The Nation Builder Award is refreshing and whilst it is in a relative stage of infancy, it is clear that based on the quality of the award recipients, this programme is founded and well focused.”  He continued to say that the programme in itself is recognition that the small and medium-sized sector needs special intervention and encouraged NCB’s action in holding up the commendable businesses as examples of the right things that can be achieved.

NCB was the first commercial bank to establish a unit focused on the needs of the sector, a move that reinforced it support for nation building.  For the purposes of the awards, SMEs were defined as businesses with an annual turnover of less than J$500 million.

The judging process was conducted by an independent selection panel and we are privileged to have had the expertise of: Mrs. Becky Stockhausen, Executive Director of the American Chamber of Commerce; Mr. Harold Davis, Executive Director, Jamaica Business Development Centre and Chief Judge Dr. Henley Morgan, Management Consultant, Caribbean Applied Technology Centre. 

To provide a unique level of business expertise and entrepreneurial knowledge to participants, NCB has also partnered with: Fujitsu; HEART/NTA; Jamaica Business Development Centre; Lions Club of New Kingston, who are co-presenters of the Strength Award; The Gleaner Company Limited, our media partner; the University of the West Indices; Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica; and Women Business Owners’ Association.