British Council partners Future Awards Africa to honour young media entrepreneur

The winner will be announced in August.

The Central Working Committee of The Future Awards Africa (TFAA) on Tuesday announced its partnership with the British Council on The Future Awards Prize in Media Enterprise 2013.

The media enterprise award is meant to identify and honour young Nigerians who are successful in the creative and media industry.

“We are very excited to announce the introduction of a special category, The British Council and The Future Awards Africa Prize for ‘The International Young Media Entrepreneur of the Year’,” said Adebola Williams, Director of The Future Project. “This is a first with TFAA as we step on the continental stage, and it furthers the search for outstanding young entrepreneurs in the media and entertainment sectors where our continent has many trailblazers.”

The search begins for young persons working in the creative sectors who are able to demonstrate business success in the classic terms of business growth (profit, market share, employees) and/or in terms of his or her reputation (creativity, quality and aesthetic) amongst peers, organisers said.

The British Council also expressed its desire to partner with the TFAA in the media and creative sectors.

“We are excited to partner with The Future Awards Africa to identify spectacular young entrepreneurs in these sectors as part of our support for creativity and enterprise,” said Ojoma Ochai, Assistant Country Director of the British Council in Nigeria. “We are particularly heartened that TFAA has sustained its integrity and capacity to highlight the brightest and best young people over the past eight years. With the incredible energy of its team and excellent board of judges, we echo the endorsement by the World Bank of the awards as The Noble Prize for Young Africans.”

Nominees should be young people working in the media, with entrepreneurial and leadership abilities, potential to change their sector, market awareness and understanding, organisers said. The nominations open on Tuesday and close on July 25 at 8:30 a.m.

The winner will be decided by the British Council alongside members of The Future Awards Africa team.

The winner gets a trip to the United Kingdom to participate in a programme with valuable networking and idea exchange alongside international peers in the media sector, some of whom are themselves winners of the same award in their own countries.

The awards event holds in August 2013; and unlike other award categories, there will be no public voting for this edition of The Future Awards Africa.

More information on the award can be gotten on twitter via @TFAAfrica or the website www.thefutureafrica.com/awards.