By Dipo Olowookere
Leading global logistics provider, Agility, today announced winners of its Africa 2016 Photo Competition, a series of photographs that show how quickly Africa is modernizing, growing and even leading the way in new technology.
The annual contest, now in its second year, is a pan-Africa photography competition focusing on Africa’s rapid modernization. This year’s competition drew more than 2,500 photographs from professional and amateur photographers in 30 countries.
The winning images depicted a fisherman in a canoe on Lake Victoria on his laptop, a solar farm in Rwanda powering 15,000 homes, and the skyline of Harare, Zimbabwe.
A cash prize of $2,000 was awarded for each competition category.
The winners were Stephen Simiyu, a photographer from Nairobi, Kenya (Technology); Henry Oliver Hakulandaba, an environmental consultant and photographer from Harare (Cities); and Esdore Hakizimana, a machine operator from Kigali, Rwanda (Industry).
Simiyu also won the Grand Prize of $2,000 for his photograph of a fisherman using a laptop in a canoe on Lake Victoria, Uganda.
The winning photographs and the runners-ups were featured at a session at the United Nations General Assembly in New York earlier this month and will be shown at the Thomson Reuters Africa Summit 2016 in Cape Town in October.
They will also be showcased in Forbes Africa, on CNBC Africa, and in Agility’s corporate magazine, Tradelanes.
Simiyu, the Grand Prize winner, said: “I know Africa is developing, and to show this, I needed an image that could tell that story in one picture. The competition really made me think about Africa – there’s nowhere like it.”
Hakulandaba, winner in the Cities category, said non-Africans are continually surprised by the pace of change in Africa. “Whenever I exhibit images of Harare or any other African city, there is always someone who says they never thought Africa has such development,” he said. “This competition is a platform to reach a wider audience about African development. It will help change perspectives of the continent’s potential.”
“The winning images speak eloquently about the historic change underway in Africa and the opportunities for Africans, African businesses and the world,” said Geoffrey White, CEO of Agility Africa. “As a company investing in the logistics infrastructure of the continent, we are proud to show the world powerful images that capture a more positive view of Africa and demonstrate the progress that has already been made, hopefully changing the perceptions of Africa in 2016.”
The competition was judged by an independent panel that consisted of Sneha Shah, Managing Director, Thomson Reuters Africa; Bronwyn Nielsen, Editor-in-Chief, CNBC Africa; and Salim Amin, Chairman of CameraPix and co-founder of Africa24 Media.
Aduragbemi Omiyale 
Modupe Gbadeyanka