Toke Makinwa, Sammy Walsh take centre stage as TFAA holds today

This year’s edition of The Future Awards Africa (TFAA) will hold today from 6:30pm – 8:30pm on Africa Magic Family, DSTV Ch. 154; Popcentral TV, DSTV Ch. 189; and MTV Base, DSTV Ch. 322.

It is part of The Future Festival, which is a three-day celebration of youth culture across Africa including the Beating Corona Telethon and The Diversity Summit.

The awards according to the Central Working Committee (CWC) will be celebrating extraordinary young people across the continent for their display of courage, innovation, talent, commitment and hard work in shaping their communities and societies, especially in the last one year.

Speaking on behalf of the CWC, its chairman, Bukunyi Olateru-Olagbegi said: “It is our pleasure to have media personalities Toke Makinwa and Sammy Walsh co-host our first-ever virtual awards, as we bring to your screens, exceptional young people who have thrived brilliantly despite the challenges of this year.”

“We believe that many will find inspiration in the stories of those we would be celebrating. This is one of the first TV and digital awards across the continent this year and certainly the first in the Nigerian market as we make a bold march into the future of content and engagement,” he added.

Dubbed as 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.

In light of the resurging cases of COVID-19 in Nigeria, leading African intervention database, BeatingCorona.Africa announced The Beating Corona Telethon, which serves as the Day 1 activity of The Future Festival by The Future Awards Africa (TFAA).

The telethon is a six-hour television program, top of every hour on Pop Central (DStv Ch. 189), set up to honour 100 young African heroes that were and still at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19.

It put the spotlight on the doctors, nurses, and many others making effort to help limit the spread of the virus and assist people who have been affected by the economic and social effects of COVID-19.

Commenting on this, the Chief Intelligence Officer, RED | for Africa, Isime Esene said: “The major reason why we had the telethon is to spotlight and amplify young people sticking out their necks to save lives and sustain livelihoods despite the challenges posed by the pandemic.

The telethon gives us a unique opportunity to see some of the people behind our most remarkable interventions and to celebrate them as they deserve. Among these 100 heroes are individuals who helped raise funds to support the less privileged, provide food for their communities, promote ideas to help track interventions, and many more,” he added.

Esene explained that The Future Project established BeatingCorona.Africa in partnership with YNaija and Culture Intelligence from RED, as an innovative platform that gathers data of all COVID-19 interventions in Africa.

“The platform spearheaded the creation of a comprehensive and accessible information database on what organisations, brands, groups, corporations, and individuals are doing to assist in the fight against the pandemic,” Esene stated.

According to him, the awards are 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 its value proposition.

Viewers can also watch the awards live via its social media page @tfaafrica