AFRIMA unveils 2016 calendar

The All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA), organised in conjunction with African Union Commission (AUC), has unveiled its calendar of activities for 2016. The activities for this year’s edition tagged AFRIMA 3.0 were announced at the AUC-AFRIMA Joint Conference in Banjul, The Gambia.
Attended by officials of the AU, AFRIMA 2015 winners and stakeholders in the creative/ entertainment industry in Africa, media executives and musical artistes, the Head of Culture, AUC, Ms. Angela Martins, declared the activities open at the event.
She said the AU was pushing forward its developmental agenda and policies through the AFRIMA platform.
The calendar opens with submissions of entries via the online platform, which started since May 30 and closes on Saturday, July 30.
President and Executive Producer of AFRIMA, Mike Dada, urged all artistes, managers, producers, record label owners, publicists and agents to submit their works or those of their artistes within the stipulated time, to stand a chance at the awards.
“No matter how popular an artiste or their works are, if they don’t submit them for the awards, they will stand no chance of winning, as the AFRIMA jury will not go sourcing for artistes’ works themselves,” he said.
He explained that the AFRIMA Jury would screen the nominees from August 2 to 16, while the full list of nominees will be announced on August 17.
However, he announced that the voting period for the general public commences from August 26, while that of the AFRIMA Academy will start on September 26. The entire voting process will close on November 5.
Also, there will be a Nominees Party in Nigeria on November 3, while the Africa Music Summit where the African music industry will be discussed and AFRIMA Music Village will hold on November 4.
This year’s grand finale holds in Nigeria on Sunday, November 6, in a yet-to-be announced city.
AFRIMA is developed to celebrate, reward and showcase the rich musical culture of Africa, stimulate conversations among Africans and between Africa and the rest of the globe about the great potential and values of the African culture and artistic heritage for the purpose of creating jobs, reducing poverty, calling attention of world leaders to Africa and promoting the positive image of Africa to the world.