Zimbabwean Named Among Judges of Africa Youth Awards
Mr Alvin Nyika, a youthful Zimbabwean who is the founder of Core Foundation, a social entrepreneurship organization, has been named among the judges of the African Achievers Awards.
The awards which have been dubbed 20 Under 20 Young African Change Makers is meant to highlight the achievements of 20 young people aged 20 and below who are involved in activities that contribute towards creating a positive change in Africa.
Nominations for these awards which will start on the 15th of April and officially end on the 15th of June 2015 can be done through the following web link (bit.ly/20Un20), after which the announcement of the results and packages will take place in the first week of August 2015.
Young Africans who are making an impact in their communities are being called upon to participate in this initiative which will be based on four categories which are: innovation, entrepreneurship, education and leadership.
According to pan-Africanist, Prince Akpah from Ghana, founder and president of the Africa Youth Awards, the 20 Under 20 Young African Change Makers Awards initiative is part of the on-going quest to discover and celebrate young African achievers.
Zimbabwe’s social entrepreneur, Alvin Nyika is not new to both national and international recognition as witnessed by various platforms and engagements where his name is associated with notable achievements among other fellow exceptional achievers.
Recently, he was recognised by Africa Youth Awards as one of the top 20 Young African Change Makers who is under the age of 35. He managed to earn himself a place in a list comprised of Hollywood star Lupita Nyongo from Kenya.
Other notable young Africans on the same list includes Sara Nana Yeboah, Cyrille Guel, Ashish Thakkar, Ola Orekunrin, Isaac Oboth, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Aya Chebbi.
As a member of the Global Shapers - Harare Hub, Alvin was invited among fellow global shapers from Zimbabwe and other countries to attend the World Economic Forum to be held in South Africa in June 2015.
Currently, he is the 2015-2016 Country Coordinator for Network of Africa Youth Development, a coalition of youth developmental organizations.
Alvin who is currently an Ambassador for Change Minds, Change Future, which mentors and promotes youth development in Africa is also a Certified Ambassador for Sterio.Me, an educational company that is in more than 10 African countries.
In March 2015, his organization, Core Foundation, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises in Zimbabwe towards the facilitation of the development of SMEs through resource mobilization and business linkages.
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of SMEs in Zimbabwe, Mrs Evelyn Ndlovu described Alvin Nyika and his Core Foundation team as a group of young people who have taken it upon themselves to come up with brilliant ideas of partnering with the government in order to improve the lives of the people.
Last year, under the leadership of Mr Alvin Nyika, Core Foundation spearheaded the hosting of the 2nd National Steering Committee on Formalisation of the Informal Sector. This was a stakeholder’s consultative forum on coming up with strategies to do with the regulation of various commercial activities of informal business players.
The 31 year old high-flying Mr Nyika who holds a degree in Marketing and Management from the University of Johannesburg is currently doing a Social Entrepreneurship and Corporate Social Responsibility program with the University of Arizona.
Alvin will team up with fellow inspired young African Change makers to form a panel of judges who will be responsible for mentorship of these Under 20 young achievers and monitoring of the program.
Fellow judges include Ebenezer Essuman (Ghana), Cyrille Guel (Burkina Faso), Terser Adamu (Nigeria), Shriliv Mohur (Mauritius), Fabiene Kengne (Cameroon), Nuamah Sally (Ghana) and Exousia Momoh (Sierra Leone).
Africa Youth Awards president, Prince Akpah said that in order to have a robust adjudication process which ensures the selection of the best talent from Africa, BBC producer and presenter, Ngunan Adamu will act as the patron for the year 2015.
“Ngunan will lead a panel of judges consisting widely of recognised young African achievers. Our panel will be responsible for making the decisive decision on the winners before the final list is released to the public” said Prince Akpah.