Nigerian artistes have topped the list of nominees from West Africa region for the All African Music awards, AFRIMA, in the best male and female artiste category.

The list of nominees at the African regional level (Southern, Northern, Central and Western) which was released on Monday, August 22, 2016 by the African Union and a 13- man Jury of AFRIMA saw Nigeria artistes leading the pack in the West Africa region.

Among the top 8 female nominees from West Africa, Nigeria has 6 slots with Aramide, Niniola, Seyi Shay, Temi Doll Face, Tiwa Savage, and Yemi Alade as the nominees, while in the male category Nigeria has 4 slots (Brymo, Flavour, Tekno and Wizkid) among the 7 nominees.

According to the Moderator of the adjudication process, Mr. Mike Strano who is the Regional Director, Eastern Africa/Co-Producer, AFRIMA, about 2,700 entries from African music professionals were received during the period of May 20, 2015 to July 30, 2016 adding that the nomination process was careful and thorough while harping on the Jury’s resolve to be fair and transparent.

“The Jury is very careful about being accurate right from the process of verifying eligibility of entries to the process collating and finalising results. It is an evolving process but one we work painstakingly at to ensure transparency and fairness”.

“There are 34 categories of the award but only 10 have been released, which are the Regional Categories. A new category introduced this year is the “People’s Choice Award” which comes out from a healthy debate by the International Committee of AFRIMA and the Jury,” Strano explained.

The Best Female Artistes and Best Male Artistes of the five regions have been released while the nominees in the continental categories will follow suit soon.

Describing the jurors’ experience as rewarding, the Head, Culture Division, African Union Commission, AUC, Mrs Angela Martins, reiterated the AU and AFRIMA’s objectives of unity among African artistes and the need for continental integration while celebrating its rich music and heritage.

She said, “The adjudication process was very rewarding and as one, privileged to be part of the Jury, I was able to discover the widespread talents in the different regions of our beloved continent. Now, that the AFRIMA adjudication has been finalised, we expect that in the coming months, Africans will recognise these nominated artistes by putting in votes for all of them.”

One of the two jury members representing Eastern Africa, Mr. Richard Kawesa, a Ugandan, eulogised AFRIMA’s decision to digitalise its screening process for 2016. “In the past years, we were using paper to grade but now in 2016, AFRIMA has shown innovativeness with all of us making use of technology, laptops, tablets and mobile devices to screen and grade with ease.”

Public voting for the nominees in the different categories of the awards will open on August 30. In partnership with the AUC and the Official Host City Lagos State, the AFRIMA 3.0 calendar of events for November 4-6, 2016 will include the Africa Music Summit on Friday, November 4, and the AFRIMA Music Village, an open concert-style festival featuring nominees and other top billed music stars. The grand awards ceremony holds on Sunday, November 6.