Lagos Are You Ready? The Future Awards Africa Holds on 7 December, Launches Campaign For 1million Young Africans To Fight Ebola

Friday, 7 November 2014

Lagos Are You Ready? The Future Awards Africa Holds on 7 December, Launches Campaign For 1million Young Africans To Fight Ebola

The Central Working Committee (CWC) of Africa’s biggest youth event, The Future Awards Africa (TFAA) has announced the date and host state for the 2014 edition of the event: “We are excited to announce that The Future Awards Africa 2014 will be hosted in Lagos, Nigeria on Sunday, 7 December.”

The Future Project has a simple mandate – to build empowered citizens across Africa, through (inclusive) enterprise and (active) citizenship. This focus on Human Capital Development is informed by our value proposition: Africa’s growth needs a generation of young people who are gainfully employed and able to demand and secure better leadership.

Our projects include Aiki.ng, an employability portal presented with Microsoft; the Nigeria Symposium for Young & Emerging Leaders, #StartupsAfrica, Intern4Jobs, The m-Hub, TheFuture Enterprise Support Scheme and The Future Africa Awards & Summit, described as ‘The Nobel Prize for Young Africans’.

With a network of funders and partners including the Tony Elumelu Foundation, the US Government, First Bank, MTN, HP, the Nigerian Government and the British Council, our work has spanned Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania, Liberia, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Malawi, Cameroon, Somalia, Equitorial Guinea, Ivory Coast and Kenya.

Founded by the Chude Jideonwo and Adebola Williams, TFP is supervised by a Global Board of Advisors drawn from Africa, Europe, North America and the Middle East, including the Coordinating Minister of the Nigerian Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; Senior Economic Advisor with the Open Society Foundations, Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili; co-founder of ONE, Jamie Drummond and the Chief of Cabinet with the Africa Development Bank, Anne Kabagambe.

This is the 9th edition of the awards, which became an African prize last year, with a commemorative ceremony hosted by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan at the Presidential Villa in Aso Rock, Abuja.

“We are thrilled to have the awards return to Lagos where it all started,” said Ohimai Atafo, Chair of the CWC and one of Africa’s leading fashion entrepreneurs. “TFAA has always been excited to fuse inspiration with the best of pop culture, and this year’s event will underline that tradition – an evening of inspiration, of hope, and of a continent renewed.”

This year’s event is also dedicated to the cause of fighting Ebola in West Africa. On 11.11.2014, TFAA will launch a global campaign to get 1 million young Africans involved in the fight against Ebola via stopebola.com.

In an interview with Yahoo! News last week, CNN’s Isha Sesay made clear: “We have to realize that the clock is ticking. We have an Ebola UN emergency fund and there’s very little money in it. We have pledges being made, but the pledges aren’t being translated into action,” Sesay said.

“We are answering to that call to action,” said Mfon Ekpo, Vice-Chair of the CWC and West Africa Representative on the Mandela Washington Fellowship Advisory Board. “If Africa will be saved by Africans, then young people need to take the lead on the problems we face and take ownership in the solutions we need.”

Ebola cases are doubling every 2o days in the worst affected countries, and the World Health Organisation (WHO) has called it “the largest, most complex and most severe we’ve ever seen”.

TFAA will be deploying its network of winners, nominees, alumni, celebrity, brain trust and continental media partners for this #StopEbola campaign – to get 1 million young Africans to donate social media updates and then for young people to donate a minimum of $25 (4,250naira) each directly to the WHO through the United Nations Ebola Response Fund. It has also selected 50 of Africa’s most influential celebrities to headline the campaign.

The Future Awards Africa 2014 is presented in partnership with Microsoft, the Tony Elumelu Foundation and Vitafoam.

Official Media Partners are EbonyLife TV, AfricaMagic, Ventures Africa, and Y! Africa. Official Online Partners are MemeBurn, BellaNaija, Premium Times and 360nobs.

The official bloggers for 2014 are LindaIkeji, Omojuwa, LadunLiadi, Olorisupergal, Ameyaw, NigeriaNewsDesk and GidiTraffic. Country partners are Silverbird TV, HipTV, The Cable, LadunLiadi, The Trent, Information Nigeria, News Wire Nigeria and Pulse.ng.

Cool FM is the host radio station. Channels Television is the host TV station.