An award scheme dubbed “Ladies in Media Awards” (LIMA) to celebrate and honour female media personalities in five African countries was launched in Accra on Tuesday.
The countries include Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
It seeks to build excellence by creating platforms for young talented women to hone their skills through mentoring and coaching.
The President of LIMA, Ms Margaret Barden, said, “LIMA’s vision is to award and recognise media personalities whose work and influence have impacted the creative media space in their respective countries and also encourage upcoming and aspiring young women to strive for professionalism”.
She said LIMA was created by a group of young female entrepreneurs to identify young female media and creative personalities with exceptional capabilities and skills across the African continent.
“LIMA is a one-of-a-kind awards event, conceived and birthed by young ladies with entrepreneurial spirit seeking to make a change; one female at a time,” she explained.
She said this year’s event would be hosted online to reach a wider audience within the shortest possible time, and added that “it would move away from a seated event hosted in a conference room to a digital and traditional media engagement.
“This will help reach most women in media across the continent.”
She disclosed that the organisers “were working directly with credible and competent boards to adjudicate the entire process through a selection process”.
The awarding board, she said, includes the Kenyan Deputy Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Innovation and youth affairs, Nadia Ahmed, and the President of the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria, Mr Idorenyen Enang.
Others are the former President of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGHA), Ms Diana Hopeson, a Zimbabwean Entrepreneur, Mr Tawanda Raymond, and Mr Maxwell Dodd, a Ghanaian Entrepreneur.
BY ANDREW NORTEY
