The Central Working Committee for Africa’s biggest youth event, The Future Awards Africa (TFAA), has announced its plans for the next 10 years of the awards. The move follows a review of the last ten years by its Global Board of Advisors – meeting in July 2016.

 Based on that decision, the series of events that make up TFAA will hold from country to country, focused on the peculiar issues of that country’s youth – and will be implemented through a mixture of centrally organized events, and franchises to organize events across the continent and outside.

 “TFAA is deliberately a cultural event – gathering the influencers, leaders and media to spotlight achievement and value and growth,” said Obiageli Ezekwesili, former Vice President of the World Bank, who is a member of the Global Board of Advisors for TFAA. “However at its core, of course, it is about impact – the celebration and acceleration of impact, especially on communities.

 “We have decided that this is the best funnel to deepen that imperative moving forward.”

 Over the next three years, TFAA will hold in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya – with an approved franchise to hold in Cote D’Ivoire. 10 franchises have also been opened up by the committee for approval.

 “This will culminate every three years in an African event that will be a meeting of minds of the brightest and best of Young Africa – to collaborate, to network impact, and to cross-learn,” said Jamie Drummond, co-founder of ONE and another member of the board.

 This year, the award will host a Nigeria edition – that will focus on finding bright spots in what has been a difficult year for Nigeria; identifying the innovators, entrepreneurs, creative and leaders who have built, or extended models of growth and change regardless.

“The Future Project has a simple purpose: to build empowered citizens,” says Bukonla Adebakin, who is deputy chief operating officer. “We are excited by our board mandate to actualize that purpose through its project, The Future Awards Africa. Africa needs more active citizens making a marked difference for the continent through their countries. We look forward to working with them, community to community.”

 The Future Awards Africa 2016 is powered by RED. The event holds in Lagos, Nigeria on Sunday, 18 December, 2016

 For more information, visit awards.thefutureafrica.com. Follow @TFAAfrica to keep up with the latest news on TFAA. The official hashtags for 2016 is #TFAA2016. 

 

ABOUT THE FUTURE AWARDS AFRICA

The Future Awards Africa has been called the ‘Nobel Prize for Young Africans’, and the ‘most important youth awards’ by Forbes. It is a set of prizes given annually to celebrate and accelerate innovation, creativity and enterprise amongst young Africans aged 18 – 31. It has produced over 150 winners and over 1550 nominees since its first edition in 2006.

 It is presented in conjunction with The Future Project, which has a 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, YMonitor.org presented with National Endowment for Democracy (NED), The Future Enterprise Support Scheme and The Future Awards Africa, described as ‘The Nobel Prize for Young Africans’.

 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.

  

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About Red Media Africa

Red Media Africa (www.redmediaafrica.com)  is the PR & Empowerment Marketing division under the parent brand, RED.

It focuses on using inspiration, empowerment and action to help brands and organisations connect with their audiences, enhance their bottom-lines and lead in their industries. It has 6 major practice areas: Corporate Practice, Technology Practice, SME Practice, Governance Practice, Faith Practice and the International Practice – with work for brands across Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa. RED owns the continent’s largest portfolio of youth media brands. Its Content Division holds brands across TV, radio, online and events including Y! Magazine,YNaija.com, Rubbin’ Minds, #YTech100 and the The RED Summit. It also anchors a development firm, The Future Project, which projects include Africa’s leading youth platform, The Future Awards Africa, HowCanIGetInvolved.com and Aiki.ng, which is run in conjunction with Microsoft.