The top 10 winners of the Future Africa Leadership Award, an initiative of the Oyakhilome Foundation Initiative, have been awarded a total grant of $125,000 to promote development initiatives of their respective countries.
The Senior Executive Officer of FALA, Olajumoke Ola-Akinsanya, disclosed this during a media briefing in Lagos on Thursday.
Speaking on how the winners emerged, Ola-Akinsaya noted that 30 winners were selected from the nomination received by the organisers and their applications were screened to select the best 10.
She added that each of the 10 recipients was supported with $10,000 while the overall best winner got an additional $25,000 grant as the star prize.
“After nominations have been received, the criteria have to do with the project and the impact it is having and how innovative the project is. When we are talking about innovation, we are not talking about copying and pasting something from somewhere outside Africa, we are looking at something that is doable and self-sustaining. By the time we have that, we then come up with different stages to come about with the winners.”
In her reaction, the overall winner of the star prize from Sierra Leone, Mariama Gendemh, said the grants would help her foundation to contribute to solving food security issues that had ravaged her country and also contribute to other socio-economic problems in Sierra Leone.
She said, “The company is not just focused on food security alone; we are using agriculture as a powerhouse to implement the initiatives through the provision of foods for the malnourished kids. Our farm produce are not for sale, they are meant to serve as a community food project which we have embarked upon. The farm is just there as a powerhouse to help us implement our project. this grant will help us to expand on our activities.”
A representative of the Oyakhilome Foundation, who only identified as Temisan, said the award was initiated to solve the leadership deficit in Africa through recognition of outstanding young African leaders.
“The award is to recognise young Africans who have impacted their communities because if everyone impacted their communities, the continent would be developed. our message is that only Africans can develop Africa, and that is why we have given the award to 123 young Africans across 30 African countries. We cannot rely on the government to do all the development that is why we are putting this effort through the man of God, Pastor Chris, to develop Africa,” Temisan noted.