Thursday, 28th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search

From Peace to Ogunyemi… Change of baton at AMAA

By Shaibu Husseini
03 February 2015   |   11:00 pm
WHEN the founder and Chief Executive officer of the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) Peace Anyiam-Osigwe announced at the 10th edition of the awards, which held last year in Yenegoa, Bayelsa State that she was quitting her position as Chief Executive officer to concentrate fully on advancing the cause of filmmaking in the continent through…

Anyiam-Osigwe--4-2-15

WHEN the founder and Chief Executive officer of the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) Peace Anyiam-Osigwe announced at the 10th edition of the awards, which held last year in Yenegoa, Bayelsa State that she was quitting her position as Chief Executive officer to concentrate fully on advancing the cause of filmmaking in the continent through her Africa Film Academy (AFA), most observers thought it was just a political statement.  After all, they argued that she has always said that she will ‘quit as CEO’ but each year she returns as the pivot of the premier film award, which is also regarded as Africa’s answer to the Oscars.

  But a press statement issued last week and signed by the consulting Head of Media for the AMAA, Tope Ajayi has indeed confirmed that the baton has changed hands.

  Although Peace Anyim-Osigwe will continue to function as President of the AFA and AMAA, the task of running the foremost moviedom reward project is now the responsibility of renowned entertainment law and finance expert, Dayo Ogunyemi.

  A long standing member of the Governing Board of AFA and a film law expert for the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), Ogunyemi has spent the past two decades at the confluence of entertainment, media and technology with employment experience with Booz Allen & Hamilton’s media and technology practice, Sony Music Entertainment Inc., and BMG. The new CEO has in the past decade, focused on the finance, media and technology landscapes in Africa, garnering experience in principal investing, consulting, financial advisory and capital mobilisation. 

  A Beta Gamma Sigma graduate of Columbia Business School, who holds a Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School and an SB from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ogunyemi, who is also admitted to practice law in New York, has served as one of the principal advisers to the Nigerian film industry on finance, distribution and intellectual property, including negotiating key licensing and distribution agreements. He has also formulated policy, advising the UN ECA and more than seven African governments and regional economic communities (including the EAC and ECOWAS) on intellectual property, telecommunications, technology, e-commerce and finance. 

 As CEO of AMAA, Ogunyemi’s priority is to transform the project into an inclusive reward and recognition platform for African filmmaking – whether in the continent or the African Diaspora. He also plans to strengthen AFA’s institutional structure so as to make it more proactive and responsive. 

  But more important, Ogunyemi needs to and urgently so, amplify the AMAA’s reach – both in terms of audience and value to winners, nominees and the filmmaking community. Also, Ogunyemi needs to build a team that will work hard at raising the bar in production value for the actual AMAA ceremony and other events.

 

0 Comments