Mr Goke Olorunnihi, an organising partner of the contest, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja that the  initiative was to  ensure that Nigerian models can ‘trade’ from the comfort of their homes.

According to him, many young models are leaving the profession as a result of enormous challenges before and during the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown.

“The concept of the online beauty contest is to encourage Nigerian models to earn, even while they stay at home and maintain social distance”.

“The modelling business in Nigeria is still growing and yet to have a proper structure; therefore, some models, especially upcoming ones are not having stable income”.

“Like other professionals that suffered setbacks, models who stay at home are now struggling to feed”.

”We hardly see Nigerian companies looking for a model to advertise their products, as they are now targeting social media influencers and celebrities; this is killing the modelling industry in the country,” he said.

Olorunnihi explained that the online beauty contest platform  offered  contestants a monthly cash prize and an opportunity to feature in the grand finale to came up twice a year.

He added that the monthly winners would enter into the grand finale and the winner of the grand finale would be determined by a combination of votes of the judges and those of the public.

“The contest started in July and produced Janet Akor as first winner, who won 30,000 naira and a spot in the grand finale. Contestants are to upload their pictures on our website after registration and  get friends to vote for them”.

“The finale, a live photoshoot of all the monthly winners from July to November, will be done in front of live judges and live audience”.

The grand finale contestants will compete to win a year modelling contract, N200,000 and other prizes from sponsors,” he said. (NAN)