Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
The media has been applauded by the Nigerian Breweries Plc for rallying support for the huge harvest of entries for the 9th Golden Pen Awards sponsored by the company.
Submission of entries for the 9th edition of the awards, which started on Monday, July 3, 2017, closed on Friday, August 4, 2017.
The award was introduced by Nigerian Breweries to promote professionalism in journalism practice in Nigeria.
At the close of the submission of entries, 250 works for different categories were received by officials in charge of the award’s entry portal.
Corporate Affairs Adviser of Nigerian Breweries, Mr Kufre Ekanem, explained that an independent panel of judges made up of distinguished professionals would analyse the entries for originality, news value, use of resources, credibility and factuality at the end of the collation.
Other areas of interest are info-graphics, lay out/headline, clarity and social responsibility, according to him.
Mr Ekanem said that the 9th Nigerian Breweries Golden Pen Awards ceremony would hold on Friday October 6, 2017 where winners would be announced. Winners will emerge in the three categories of the award: the Nigerian Breweries Golden Pen Reporter of the Year, the Nigerian Breweries Golden Pen Photojournalist of the Year and the Nigerian Breweries Report of the Year.
According to him, the prizes have also been reviewed upwards.
“The Nigerian Breweries Golden Pen Reporter of the Year will get a cash prize of N2 million plus a gift item. The first runner up will get N1 million while the second runner up will go home with N750,000,” he said
He added that in the Photojournalist category, the overall winner would receive N1 million plus a gift item while the first and second runners up would be rewarded with N750,000 and N500,000 respectively.
“The winner of the Nigerian Breweries Golden Pen Report of the Year will receive N1 million and a gift item,” he disclosed.
In the previous three editions, the focus of the award was on the role of the media in setting agenda for the future of Nigeria with the theme – education, youth empowerment and talent development.
With the completion of the three-year focus on education, youth empowerment and talent development, Mr Ekanem said, that the company was directing the attention of the Nigerian media to agriculture, local sourcing and industrial development as the themes for the 9th Nigerian Breweries Golden Pen Award.
