Sterling Bank’s sponsored SMAA attracts $1,000 for winnners

The 2014 Social Media Awards Africa (SMAA) sponsored by Sterling Bank plc attracts $1,000 each and special social media training for winners.

SMAA is a premier continental initiative to recognise and celebrate excellence, creativity and enterprise in the use of social media – through its tools and platforms by individuals and organisations across Africa.

The Awards comes in 15 categories – including blogger of the year, social media personality of the year, social media hero, facebook page of the year, twitter handle of the year, among others.

Voting for the SMAA commenced on Tuesday and will last till November 28, 2014, while the social media Africa summit with the theme ‘social media for governance, leadership and development’ is scheduled to hold in December 5, 2014, and ‘Night Virtual Wonders’ holds December 6, 2014.

Abubarka Suleiman, executive director of the bank, who spoke at a press conference to announce the commencement of voting for the social media awards Africa, attributed the bank’s decision to support the 2014 social media awards Africa to the need to recognise and celebrate excellence, creativity and the impact of social media on human socio-economic development through its tools and platforms by individuals and organisations across the continent.

“The social media space is no longer on the fringe, as most people are increasingly using it. We want to encourage people across Africa on how beneficial the platform is and ensure that the best use of it is rewarded,” he said.

Femi Aderibigbe, founder, Development Diaries, said a total of 923 entries containing 3,230 nominations were received within the two weeks window for nomination against the 700 nomination target set initially, saying that based on the eligibility and validity of claims, a total of 491 nominations were disqualified by the Virtual Council.

The award prizes include dollar denominated cash prizes, professional and institutional trainings on social media and access to mentorship opportunities among other benefits for excellence and impact in social media practice.

The Social Media Africa Initiative is supervised by an advisory board of respected individuals such as: Toby Daniels, CEO, CrowdCentric and founder, Social Media Week; Tunji Lardner, executive director, West African NGO Network (WANGONeT); Ini Onuk, lead consultant/CEO, ThistlePraxis Consulting; Abdul Tejan-Cole, executive director, Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), among others. Leading the judging process is a jury that includes Ken Banks.