President of Africa LAMPS Awards, Mr Shina Philips has scored yet another first with a yearly award of merits for African sons and daughters who have made great impact in the development of the continent.
Philips revealed his pep dream during an inaugural media parley at the Radisson Blu Hotels, Ikeja, Lagos during the weekend saying that Africa LAMPS Awards is an initiative of Leaders Consult International.
According to the founder of longest surviving sports awards, Nigeria Pitch Awards, the LAMPS project started since 2014 declaring that now is the ripe time to celebrate African heroes is all spheres of development including Arts, Management, Politics, Science, Sports and Security.
I am delighted to welcome you to this inaugural Press Conference to formally announce the birth of the Africa LAMPS Awards, an initiative of Lenders Consult International. The acronym ‘LAMPS’ represents Legends of Arts, Management, Politics, Science, Sports and Security.
“The Africa LAMPS Awards, a robust award platform for the African continent, 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 have not been properly projected,” Philips said.
He added: “The African continent has strategic natural resources notably some 30 per cent of the world’s mineral reserves, 12 per cent of the world’s oil reserves and about eight per cent of the world’s natural Gas. Sixty per cent of arable land in the world is located in Africa. These statistics have been talked about and are common knowledge.
“What is now imperative is for us to talk about and project the rich human capital resources and the contributions African professionals, scientists, managers, artistes and athletes have made to humanity.
“The Africa LAMPS Awards is designed to identify, honour and celebrate Africa’s brightest stars in key areas of human endeavours. It will unearth the human capital potentials on the continent. It is our expectation that it will inspire leaders to return to the drawing board to re-strategize on their commitment to innovation, knowledge acquisition, knowledge sharing and purposeful leadership and enterprise while highlighting the core African values of honesty, industry, ingenuity, enterprise and integrity as well as encouraging and rewarding hard work among Africans.
“The Africa LAMPS Awards will honour winners in 14 different award categories. These categories represent a strategic spread of the core areas of human knowledge, innovation, enterprise and civilization. Nine of these categories are for individuals, four for institutions and one for a global leader who has through his/her country’s foreign policy, shown exceptional commitment to the development and wellbeing of the continent. 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; African CEO of the Year and African Entrepreneur of the Year.
“Others are: African Agricultural Entrepreneur of the Year; Africa’s Most Influential Political Personality of the Year; Global Leadership Award; African Scientist of the Year; African Sport Personality of the Year; African Security Personality of the Year; Africa’s Telecom Company of the Year and Africa’s Tourism and Hospitality Brand of the Year”
Speaking further he said: “The integrity of any award platform rests primarily on the availability of an explicitly stated criteria to guide voters and on the credibility and transparency of the award process. Whenever these requirements are missing, the process becomes compromised, and the integrity of the award process is directly and indirectly impaired.
“Lenders Consult International has over ten years valuable experience in the organization of credible and transparent awards. The Nigeria Pitch Awards, one of our flagship projects, recently held its tenth award ceremony. In the last decade, we have weathered the storms, swam the tide and driven against all odds to build an award brand we can pass on to future generations as legacy. The Nigeria Pitch Awards has been adjudged credible and transparent. It is Nigeria’s longest running sports awards and one of a few audited awards on the continent.
“In 2011, we 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, we have organized the annual Conference and Retreat for Senior Police Officers. In April this year, we organized the first-ever Nigeria Police Awards and Commendations Ceremony in conjunction with the office of the Inspector-General of Police.
“We will bring our experience in this area to bear on the award process of the Africa LAMPS Awards. Nominees and eventual winners will be decided by votes cast by a Collegiate of Voters comprising top editors and journalists in all 54 African countries. Voting on this platform 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.”
Philips revealed that the maiden edition of the awards is likely to hold in Nigeria or Rwanda stressing that the experience with organizing the Nigeria Pitch Awards has shown that a credible award platform can indeed motivate and inspire winners to higher levels of commitment and professionalism.
“The Africa LAMPS Awards is a brand which can become a major global attraction like other award brands across the world.
Africa is due for an award platform which unites 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 the innovation, transformative technology and development. It is possible. It is achievable. It is within our grasp. We can be a part of it. We welcome you to the Africa LAMPS Awards.”