Shina Phillips
Lenders Consult International, organizers of the Nigeria Pitch Awards and other capacity-building programmes, have announced plans to honour Africa’s brightest professionals, technocrats, athletes, scientists, musical and movie entertainers at a grand award ceremony early in 2025.
The initiative, Africa LAMPS Awards represents Legends of Arts, Management, Politics, Science, Sports and Security.
Addressing Editors from the Print and Electronic Media on Friday 12 July in Lagos, Shina Philips, the CEO/MD of Lenders Consult International, noted that the idea of ‘organizing the awards is borne out of our genuine desire to identify and honour deserving men and women of African descent whose contributions to the global history of civilization and development in critical areas such as science, politics, sports, security, management, entertainment, tourism and technology has not been properly projected.’
Mr. Philips noted that Africa was due for an award platform which would unite the continent in such a manner that ‘African leaders will individually and collectively be inspired to commit more resources and investment to Research and Development, technology acquisition, agriculture and the economy so that in the next half a century, African will be a leading continent in innovation, transformative technology and development.’
Speaking on the award process, Mr. Philips stated that nominees and eventual winners would be decided by votes cast by a College of Voters comprising top editors and journalists in all 54 African countries.
‘Voting on this platform’, Philips noted, ‘requires a very broad spectrum of people, knowledge, intellect and expertise. It is therefore important that the media, who collectively report the totality of all human endeavours, be at the centre of the award process.’
He further explained that voting would be done through a dedicated online portal managed by an accounting and auditing firm with years of operation and experience on the African continent. The accounting and auditing firm would collate, audit and verify all votes and results.
Also speaking at the event, Mr Eze Anaba, President of the Nigeria Guild of Editors, commended the initiative while calling the on media to give organizers all the support that they need to make the awards a success.
The former editor of ‘National Mirror’, Mr Ben Memuletiwon spoke glowingly about the personality of Mr Shina Philips and Lenders Consult International who have been involved in the organization of the Nigeria Pitch Awards for over a decade.
The Africa LAMPS Awards will honour winners in 14 different award categories. The categories are African Music Personality of the Year; African Movie Personality of the Year; Africa’s Media House of the Year; Africa’s Financial Institution of the Year and African CEO of the Year.
Other categories include African Entrepreneur of the Year; African Agricultural Entrepreneur of the Year; Africa’s Most Influential Political Personality of the Year; Global Leadership Award; African Scientist of the Year and African Sport Personality of the Year. Awards will also be presented to African Security Personality of the Year, Africa’s Telecom Company, and Africa’s Tourism and Hospitality Brand of the Year.
The Organizer, Lenders Consult International, formerly Matchmakers Consult International, organized the first NFF/FIFA Players Agents Workshop in Lagos in partnership with FIFA and the NFF. Since 2019, in conjunction with the Nigeria Police Force, they have organized the annual Conference and Retreat for Senior Police Officers. In April this year, Lenders Consult organized the first-ever Nigeria Police Awards and Commendations Ceremony in conjunction with the office of the Inspector-General of Police.
