Africa’s biggest youth event, The
Future Awards Africa (TFAA) has announced the Keynote Speakers for its 2014
edition: they are the governor of Africa’s largest city, Babatunde Raji
Fashola, and Tanzania’s Dr. Frannie Leautier, who has been called ‘Africa’s
queen of development’. The event holds on Sunday, 7 December at the Intercontinental
Hotels in Lagos, Nigeria.
“We are extremely excited to
announce the confirming of these exemplary African leaders,” said Mohamed
Diaby, from Abidjan, who is a member of the Central Working Committee for the
awards. “They typify the theme for this year’s event, a call to action for
Africa’s now generation to take charge and transform the continent. We are
counting the days to the continent’s exclusive evening of inspiration.”
The Keynote Speaker for 2013 was
Nigeria’s president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.
Dr. Leautier is the Chief Executive
Officer of Mkoba Private Equity, a fund created to support small and medium
enterprises in Africa. She has served as Vice President of the World Bank and
Head of the World Bank Institute. She was also co-chair of the World
Economic Forum in 2013. She has also had a successful career in the private
sector. In 2007, she founded the Fezembat Group, a company focused on risk
management and leadership development, serving as its Managing Partner until
2009. Dr. Leautier was recently listed among the 100 most influential people in
Africa. She is a board member of the Nelson Mandela Institute for Science and
Technology in Africa (founding member), the Africa Institute for Governing with
Integrity (founding member) and of UONGOZI, a leadership institute in Tanzania.
Governor Fashola’s track record in
governance is widely regarded as peerless. Referred to by the UK
Telegraph as “the man who tamed” Lagos, The Atlantic says of his leadership,
“Lagos illustrates what is possible when the government enters into a social
contract with its citizens”.
Having Nigeria declared Ebola-free
has however been called “his biggest achievement in office.” Taking “personal
charge of the operation to track down and quarantined nearly 1000 people feared
to have been infected”, in a city with an estimated 17 million people, he
successfully supervised “what would have been a formidably complex operation in
any country,” according to the Telegraph.
The Governor is recipient of the 2009 Yitzhak Rabin Centre for African Development Governor of the Decade for Peace Award and the recipient of the 2010 Award of Excellence in Leadership of the Martin Luther King Jnr. Foundation.
“We need all hands on deck,” said Dr. Leautier. “This is a truly great initiative, with impressive results achieved in entrepreneurship development and getting the message of action out to young Africans. I look forward to the awards, and the next phase of impact.”
The Future Awards Africa 2014 is headlined by Vitafoam and presented in partnership with Microsoft, the Lagos Internal Revenue Service and the Tony Elumelu Foundation.
Official Media Partners are EbonyLife TV, AfricaMagic, Ventures Africa, and Y! Africa. Official Online Partners are MemeBurn, BellaNaija, Premium Times and 360nobs.
The official bloggers for 2014 are LindaIkeji, Omojuwa, LadunLiadi, Olorisupergal, Ameyaw, NigeriaNewsDesk and GidiTraffic. Country partners are The Trent, Information Nigeria, News Wire Nigeria, SabiNews and Pulse.ng.
Cool FM is the host radio station. Channels Television is the host TV station.
For more information, visit @TFAAfrica on Twitter/Instagram or the website – www.thefutureafrica.com/awards. The official hashtags for the 2014 awards are #TheFutureAwards and #TheFutureAwards2014.
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