FG rewards winners of 60th anniversary challenge with N16.5m

The Federal Government has rewarded winners of the Nigeria @60 Diamond and Innovation Challenge with N16.5 million cash prize.

Presenting the prize in Abuja yesterday, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, said the challenge was thrown open by the Inter-Ministerial Committee to all Nigerians in line with the presidential mandate to enable Nigerians own up the Diamond celebration.

He commended the winners for their creativity and innovative prowess and charged them to sustain the vision.

Daily Trust reports that Kalu Rejoice Chioma took the first position in Poetry Category; while Mustapha Dauda took the second position and Usman Patrick came third.

Similarly, Nwakuba Ezinne took first position; Yusuf Mohammed second and Sani Ibrahim came third in the Slogan category, while, Amau Oluwadausimi; Leke Adebule and Sampson Emeka clinched the laurels on the Photography category in the same order.

The third winners were presented with N1m cheque each, second position winners got N1.5m each, while the first position winners received N3m each.

The chairman of the selection panel, Usman Gambo Abdullahi, said ‘‘opportunity was given to all Nigerians to participate in the contest.’’

He said a total of 3,258 participants submitted entries for the challenge and out this, 1,931 entries came for Poetry; 630 for Slogan and 689 for photography.

He said there were series of selection process by a jury that comprised linguistic and poetry experts, who carried out the screening before arriving at 60 and finally at 9 grand winners.

Some of the criteria used in the selection process include: relevance to the theme of the Diamond celebration; originality; creativity; impact and presentation by the innovators.

The Diamond and Innovation Challenge is an initiative of the InterMinisterial Committee set up by President Mohammadu Buhari to encourage Nigerian youths on creativity and innovation.