Temitayo Olofinlua from Nigeria winner of the first Prize in the English Essay category
By PANA
Lagos, Nigeria – Youth contestants from Nigeria, Cameroon and Kenya have emerged the top winners in the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Agency Photo and Essay Competition, launched in March 2013, the agency said in a statement made available to PANA here.
The three top winners are among the overall best eight selected from hundreds of entries by a panel of six judges from across Africa.
Temitayo Olofinlua from Nigeria (West Africa) won the first Prize in the English Essay category, Jerry Lawrence from Cameroon (Central Africa) won the 1st Prize in the French Essay category and Larry Keya from Kenya (East Africa) won the 1st Prize in the Photographic Category.
Other winners include Hudson Shiraku (Kenya) and Fiifi Oduro-Nyarkoh (Ghana) who won the 2nd and 3rd Prizes respectively in the English Essay category.
Ala Eldin Abdalla (Sudan) and Luesso Amuri Jean-Paul (Burundi) emerged second in the Photographic category, while Fodjeu Nguepi Huguette from Cameroon got the 2nd Prize in the French essay category.
“We are pleased with the overwhelming response we got from all over Africa. The quality of entries was good and our judges had a busy time analysing, assessing and debating the value of each entry to determine the winners,” NEPAD’s Head of Communications, Maureen Nkandu, said in the statement.
The Essay and Photographic competition was tied to the theme of the 50th anniversary of the African Union: “Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance”, marked earlier in the year.
It was aimed at drawing public attention to the important work that NEPAD and its development partners are doing in agricultural and rural transformation, as well as the empowerment of women and youth.
The top winning Essay by Olofinlua, entitled ,“A letter to World Leaders,” focuses on Africa’s bridge between the present and future of rural development.
Keya’s winning photograph was on “The Student in the Greenhouse”, a depiction of an empowered young woman.
All the winners will receive their prizes at a special ceremony in Johannesburg, South Africa, in September.
The competition was sponsored by the Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA) as well as the African Development Bank, and was open to African youth aged 13 to 35.
