Brief Profile On All The Women Nominated For The 2017 Future Awards Africa

The Future Awards Africa (TFAA) has revealed its list of nominees for the 12th edition of the prestigious awards.

With the mandate to celebrate and accelerate innovation among young Nigerians aged 18 – 31, the TFAA acknowledges inspiring young people making a difference through social enterprise, social good, and creativity.

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The Central Working Committee of the Awards selected five exceptional individuals for each of the 21 categories in contention this year in a broadcast to be aired on Channels TV, ONTV, Spice TV and Hip TV.

The Award ceremony will hold this Saturday, December 9th in Lagos, Nigeria and everyone is excited to know  those who will emerge winners.

For some categories, we have more than one nominees and this year’s edition of the Award is sure going to be tough.

Below are the women nominated for The Future Awards 2017.

1. The Future Awards Africa Prize for Acting

A. Ini Idima-Okojie (27)

Ini-Dima Okojie got her big break, playing an annoying but indefatigable villainess on the hit webseries, “Skinny Girl in Transit”. It was a role it seemed Dima-Okojie was destined to play, and her star making turn saw her quickly cast as the lead in the Ebony Life TV Series “On The Real” and a film debut “It’s Her Day”.

Since then, Dima-Okojie has become a staple on television, Youtube and Film, scoring role after role.

 B. Bidemi Kosoko (32)

Bidemi Kosoko is a Nollywood actress known for her amazing roles in Yoruba movies, Aina Baseje and more.

In 2017 she featured in the soap ‘Professor JohnBull’ which airs on the Nigeria’s Network Station, NTA.

2. The Future Awards Africa Prize for Fashion and Design

A. Bisola ‘Ladybiba’ Adeniyi (25)

As a second generation designer introduced to the art by an Aunt, Lady Biba first of all started making clothes to fill a niche; the struggle to find work appropriate clothing that also flatters the silhouette of the weather while impressing her counterparts.

A teddy bear was the first to have the honour of wearing an original Lady Biba piece and inspiring an 8 year old with her very first Barbie Doll to consider fashion design as an option for a life career and an avenue for excellence.

B. Olivia & Sylvia ‘Gozel Green’ Enekwe (31)

Sylvia and Olivia Enekwe are second generation fashion designers whose work has been inspired by their father, a theatre arts professor at the University of Nigeria Nsukka and their mother, a designer and graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology New York.

Through the 2014 L.F.D.W. fashion incubator programme, the Fashion Focus series, Gozel Green was chosen as , as well as the opportunity to study under ethical fashion brand Edun and a retail/mentorship program with luxury retailer Grey Velvet.

3. The Future Awards Africa Prize for Beauty

A. Grace Chinonso Okoli (24)

Grace Chinonso Okoli certainly deserves this, considering how hard she has worked in short 24 years to become this impassioned business woman, a decision that began in part, because of the terrible lack of employment opportunities for young graduating Nigerians.

Okoli decided then to go into the industry herself, founding Shanyi Organics in 2016 and began to convert her audience and social media following into a bonafide client base. A year later, Shanyi Organics is fully established and already winning awards, and Okoli is already on to her next endeavour.

B. Ifeyinwa Ojekwe (27)

For Ifenyinwa Ojekwe, this jolt came in form of a health scare in 2012 that made her consider what she was putting on and in her body.

By taking out chemical shortcuts and automation, Ajali returns some of the autonomy back to the itinerant farmers for whom many of the Ajali natural skincare products have become a lifeline.

C. Jennifer Uloko (27)

Uloko graduated from Igbinedion University in 2011, with a degree in business management, so it was always a given that she would make something of herself in business.

Since she started Yangabeauty in 2014, it has grown to become one of the premier beauty retailers, connecting beauty enthusiasts with their favorite products and proving that there is no passion that cannot be flipped into a profitable empire.

D. Adetola Anita ‘Brows’ Adetoye (28)

Adetoye first started dabbling with beauty while she was in secondary school, and has always been involved in the makeup industry in some capacity since she was a teenager.

She was one of the first Nigerian beauty entrepreneurs to champion a ‘signature’ style; her cutting edge approach to make up, specifically the often hard to pin-down on-trend brow.

E. Vanessa Onwughalu (25)

Countering her sentiment about Rihanna’s Fenty beauty line was why Vanessa Onwughalu went into the beauty industry and why she created Taos cosmetics.

Onwughalu, like many Nigerian women had struggled to find beauty products that worked for her in Nigeria. So she took matters into her own hands and created her own make up line after three years of research and development in the UK.

4. The Future Awards Africa Prize for Music

A. Simisola ‘Simi’ Bolatito Ogunleye (29)

Her brand is unconventional, a spunky digital media presence, self-curated and filled with suggested romantic triangles and liaisons and a sound that has grown consistently.

Simi released her sophomore album “Simisola” in late 2017 to critical acclaim after years. She was recently awarded the Songwriter of the year award at the 2017 Afrimma awards.

5. The Future Awards Africa Prize for Professional Service

A. Ibijoke Faborode (27)

As the current head of the West African department for Agriculture, Healthcare and ICT at the British High Commission department for International trade, she joins an elite rank of Nigerian women.

With several masters degrees and a portfolio of volunteer work with the United Nations Development Project and Jeune Afrique, Faborode does it all and still finds time to give back to her community and the world at large.

B. Fiyin Williams (29)

Fiyin Williams portfolio as marketing manager reads like a dream. In seven short years, Williams has racked up an impressive partnership with several of the world’s most valuable brands.

Williams’ sojourns in the world of corporate management has imbued her with seven years of experience in marketing and PR, HR and recruitment.

Williams rises to every challenge with a hunger to learn and assimilate and conquer, it is that spirit that we want to celebrate with this nomination.

C. Olamide Bada (29)

When Olamide Bada was invited to take over managing Rocket Nigeria’s ecosystem of startup, she only had a marginal understanding of what it means to do business in Nigeria.

Under her, Hellofood was bought and consolidated food retailer, Hello Food, and ensured the brand grew a vibrant digital audience while improving on service and delivery times.

Bada also helped plan and organize the Jumia’s 2015 Black Friday giveaway, setting the tone for future Black friday events.

6. The Future Awards Africa Prize for Business

A.  Toyin Onigbanjo (29)

When Oluwatoyin Onigbanjo found out she was having a child in 2014, she prepared as best any first time parent can; with the best of intentions and never enough information.

When her child came, she found out he was prone to specificities and was unmoving about the things he desired. Especially when it came to food. Onigbanjo wanted to raise a healthy child, but she was blessed instead with one who rejected all the conventional options for children.

She took that as a sign, and set a small factory where she creates 5 unique baby food recipes, distributed along 23 channels across 20 Nigerian cities, Ghana, the UK and the US.

B. Bisola Borha (31)

Nigerian weddings have become a different kind of glamorous event, and wedding planners like Bisola Borha have been at the very forefront of this new wave of planning and orchestrating the perfect Instagram ready wedding.

When she started her business Trendy Bee events in 2012, Borha had just left her position as an operational staff at Cotecna Destination Inspection.

7. The Future Awards Africa Prize in Sports

A. Asisat Oshoala (23)

Asisat Oshoala is without a doubt one of Nigeria’s biggest football export, bar none. It is even more remarkable the things she has achieved as a female footballer in one of continent’s most consistent teams.

She was the highest goal scorer at the 2014 FIFA U-20 women’s world cup and was the best player and second top goal scorer at the 2014 African Women’s championship.

Her BBC 2015 Female Footballer of the Year award suggests that the world as well see her talent and applauds her for it.

B. Akhator Evelyn (22)

22 year old Evelyn Akhator didn’t think when she was drafted to play in the Women’s National Basketball Association league for the Dallas Wings, that she would end the year a National hero.

Akhator finished the Afrobasket championship as the event’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) she also helped D’Tigress win the entire thing and bring the cup. Akhator joined a whole litany of Nigerian born athletes who excelled on global stages this year, and makes our list for her excellent leadership.

8. The Future Awards Africa Prize for Education

A. Claudine Adeyemi

Claudine set up The Student Development Co. (The SDC) to support students through this transitional period. Primary Colours Academy, The SDC’s first initiative, is a series of free careers workshops. The aim is to assist students leaving college or university in their preparation for their careers and to ensure a smooth transition into a workplace in which they can thrive.

9. The Future Awards Prize for New Media

A. Delphine Okobah (29)

When Delphine Okobah decided to rebrand herself and take her side hustle as a red carpet host and event compere seriously, she took to twitter, using the new ‘Thread’ update to intimate her several thousand followers on her decision to go full time into entertainment.

Delphine Okobah’s star is definitely on the rise, but she has used the influence she already has so spectacularly that she has bought herself a career in the film industry and the respect of her peers.

B. Dolapo ‘LowlaDee‘ Adeleke (27)

Dolapo Adeleke, otherwise known as LowlaDee to her myriad of fans on Youtube is determined to prove this. Dolapo Adeleke was 16 when she experienced great personal tragedy, an avoidable accident that left her with permanent facial scars.

She struggled to find a way into Nollywood but was frustrated by the nepotism and dearth of original ideas that plagued the industry, so she turned to digital media and began to create content on her own terms.

10. The Future Awards Africa Prize for Media Enterprise

A. Ijeoma Ndekwu (28)

Award-winning lifestyle journalist, Ijeoma Ndekwu launched Redrick Public Relations with the desire to practice in the real world her belief that market intelligence merged with strategic, value-centered creative thinking mould the right consumer perceptions and help build successful brands.

Ijeoma is an Honours graduate of Integrated Marketing Communications from the American University of Paris, France.

11. The Future Awards Africa Prize in Public Service

A. Titilola Vivour-Adeniyi (30)

Titilola Vivour-Adeniyi is the pioneer (and currently serving) co-ordinator of the lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team (DSVRT) who protects victims of assault and abuse and bringing them to justice.

As the co-ordinator of the Lagos state DSVRT, Adeniyi has dedicated her time, her knowledge and experience as lawyer and put it to use in the protection of women and girls at risk of intimate partner violence, as well as preventing assault and rape before it can occur and ensuring that perpetrators are punished when it does happen.

B. Dada Olabisi Mary (29)

Dada Olabisi Mary’s job as a nurse at the Catholic Charitas Foundation of Nigeria, St. Dominic Catholic Hospital Chapter has challenged this notion for her and proven to herself that there are depths of service that only true empathy can plumb.

As a nurse handling HIV patients, Dada’s job puts her in contact with hundreds of HIV infected patients every day as well as women in various states of pregnancy.

12. The Future Awards Africa Prize for Advocacy

A. Mary Yakubu (23)

As a corps member sent to serve at Funtua, Katsina State, Ms. Yakubu immersed herself into the community, forging friendships and taking on the concerns of Jabiri’s citizens as her own.

Mary Yakubu received a certificate of Merit from the National Youth Service and an Award of Excellence from the Funtua Zone community development group.

B. Hauwa Ojeifo (25)

Hauwa was diagnosed as suffering from Bipolar disorder (a mental illness that is characterized by bouts of manic activity followed by a ‘crash’ into despondency), and Post Traumatic Stress disorder.

In a bid to share the help that had saved her life, she started the non-profit She Writes Woman and began to spread a gospel of openness and advocating for the normalization of discussions around mental health.

She holds private mental health crisis and suicide prevention hotlines and found mentally ill persons access to free or heavily subsidized mediation and is advocating for better healthcare.

13. The Future Awards Africa Prize for Agriculture

A. Kafilat Adedeji (29)

With a first class in Agronomy and a Ph.D in plant science in the works, Adedeji is far more versed in her chosen field than many of our industry professionals.

Adedeji’s team produces year-long organic farm produce, train other farmers on how to best integrate available contemporary software into their pre-established farming routines and fabricate and sell micro farm kits.

B. Adetola Adeleke (31)

Adetola Adeleke began the Green Fairy Farms in Epe in response to the dearth of technologically savvy farming practices and profitable agriculture in the Epe region.

Fairy Green Farms has one ace up its sleeves that puts it ahead of its competition; Green House Technology. Green House technology offers agropreneurs the ability to regulate the climate within their ‘glass’ houses and grow a variety of crops that otherwise would not thrive in certain climates.

Adeleke is also about spreading the knowledge with which she has succeeded in Lagos, and she offers specialist agronomy trainings to economically disadvantaged youths within the community, offering food, shelter, a paying job and the prospects of learning a trade as valuable as greenhouse technology which can take them right out of crush cycle of rural poverty.

14. The Edwin George Prize for Photography

A. Yagazie Eguare (30)

Her journey into photography started at The Future Enterprise Support Scheme (TFESS) and since then, her career into the photography industry is admirable.

Since Eguare started professionally documenting weddings as a Wedding documentary and portrait photographer in 2013, she has grown exponentially, photographing 100 weddings in 200 plus weeks and rebranding to better suit her new image as an in-demand photographer.

B. Tolani Alli (25)

Talented Nigerian born photographer Tolani Alli always wanted a camera, and began doing test shoots as soon as she got one. Tolani’s camera followed her to college, where she discovered documentary photography and the thrill of preserving important and seemingly mundane moments on camera.

15. The Future Awards Africa Prize for Journalism

A. Nelly Ating (28)

. Nelly Ating, a graduate of Journalism from the American University of Nigeria, Yola has a personal connection to the state of Adamawa, one of the states that suffered the most during the worst of the Boko Haram terrorist invasion.

Since then, armed with her camera and her unique perspective on Yola before the crisis, Ating wades into the conflict’s hot zones to document the destruction that BokoHaram has wrought.

16. The Future Awards Africa Prize for On Air Personality (visual)

A. Nancy Isime (25)

When Nancy Isime was first told of the on-going screen tests for Hip TV’s hit show “Trending”, she was already working for another television station and cutting her teeth in film and digital media.

Isime has quickly become one of the most readily recognizable faces on television, valued for her quick wit and her dexterity while drawing out her guests and getting them comfortable in front of a camera.

B. Idia Aisen (26)

Idia Aisien has become an arbiter of sorts of the Nigerian fashion industry, taking a role similar to the one Joan Rivers made a staple of entertainment television with her Fashion Police show, and infusing it with some empathy.

Asides from hosting studio scripted shows, Idia Aisien has become a regular on Nigerian red carpets, either hosting red carpet interview shows or slaying the carpets herself as an invited guest and fashion it-girl.

17. The Future Awards Africa Prize for On Air Personality (audio)

A. Rosemary Ajuka (27)

She decided during a holiday visit to Germany to train as a Music Mixologist with Party 93.4, an online radio station based in New York and began to build her signature radio persona behind the nick name Chilli.

She returned to Nigeria, worked briefly with Wave FM in Port Harcourt hosting her own show called ‘Sister City’ which focused on empowering and celebrating the achievements of women in community development.

Post elections in 2015, she moved to Lagos and joined Cool FM, where she now hosts Sunday Chill Out Zone With Chilli as well as Good Morning Nigeria Show both on Cool Fm 96.9 Lagos Nigeria.

B. Toyin Eleniyan (31)

It is important that women do invade these spaces and prove once and for all that sports broadcasting is not gender based or biased to any one particular gender Toyin Eleniyan, otherwise known as Toyin of Life, is one of the few instantly recognisable women in sports journalism.

The Super Sports presenter has made a name for herself in the field thanks to her enthusiasm, her unrivalled encyclopaedic knowledge of the sports which she covers and her willingness to promote and advocate for women in sports, in the booth and on the field.

18. The Future Awards Africa Prize for Young Person of the Year

A. Amaka Osakwe (30)

As a designer, Amaka Osakwe’s Maki Oh is always treading that thin line between enlightenment and blasphemy, but somehow always coming away from the tight rope with such an acute observation of Life in Nigeria.

Over her six year career, she has created a storied legacy, an in of sorts for foreigners looking to embrace something other than themselves and for us, a way to wear our idiosyncrasies as proudly as the ‘Ehn’ emblazoned across silk skirts.

B. Mary ‘Remmy’ Njoku (32)

Mary Remmy Njoku is best known as a producer for Festac Town, her twelve episode, one season series that aired on Rok TV. Remmy-Njoku had had a decent run in Hollywood and make her mark on the iconic Black Berry Bases when she decided she wanted to transition into producing in 2013, not long after she, her husband and Bastian Gotter started Spark, a $2 million company dedicated to financing Nigerian tech innovation.

19.  The Future Awards Africa Prize for Arts & Culture

A. Modupeola Fadugba (32)

A multi-media artist working in painting, drawing, and socially-engaged installation. With a background in engineering, economics, and education, she works at the nexus of science, politics, and art.

Fadugba works in series addressing cultural identity, social justice, game theory, and the art world within the socio-political landscape of Nigeria and our greater global economy.

Fadugba holds a BEng Chemical Engineering / MA Economics (University of Delaware) and MEd (Harvard University).

B. Nadine Ibrahim (23)

When Nadine Ibrahim moved back to Nigeria in 2016, she had a simple plan, make films that expose the human condition with a focus on portraiture and emotion and unvarnished subjects.

Framing her work around these three indices has given Ibrahim a unique point of view and elevated her work to the point where it is beginning to draw attention both locally and internationally. Ibrahim’s first short film ‘Through Her Eyes’ is a harrowing expose on the struggle that young Nigerian women, trafficked for work and prostitution or abducted by terrorist organizations face.

20. The Future Awards Africa Prize for Comedy

A. Gloria ‘Maraji’ Oloruntobi (20)

Musical.ly, a video sharing social media app built around the premise of lip-syncing to songs seems the weirdest place for one of Nigeria’s most promising comediennes to emerge.

Before long, Maraji’s knack for being able to animate the most awkward of viral social media videos translated into an active, loyal following across platforms, rising to as high as half a million followers on Instagram, her primary platform.

Maraji has since diversified, graduating with a degree in international relations from Covenant University and then delving full time into media. She has branched into scripted comedy, television and film.