Renown entrepreneur andfounder of Mara Phones, Ashish Thakkar, has been nominated for the 8th African Leadership Persons of the Year Award organized by the African Leadership Magazine (ALM), a UK-based publication that focuses on bringing the best of Africa to a global audience.
Mr. Thakkar, who recently launched Mara Phones, Africa’s first indigenous mobile phone company in Rwanda, has been nominated in the Employment Generation category, for his commitment to job creation through his companies as well as his role as the Chair of the Presidential Youth Advisory Group.
The Advisory Group was set up with the mandate of creating 25 million jobs in 10 years and to benefit 50 million youth worldwide.
Mr. Thakkar is contending for the coveted award with other leading Africans – Hillie Meyer, Group Chief Executive Officer, Momentum Metropolitan Holding Ltd, South Africa; Abdulsalmad Rabiu, Chief Executive Officer, BUA Group, Nigeria; and Amy Jadesimi, Managing Director, LADOL, Nigeria.
While unveiling the nominees at the Group’s corporate head office in Portsmouth, United Kingdom, the Publisher at the African Leadership Magazine, Dr. Ken Giami noted that the ALM Persons of the Year Award has continued to attract global attention and nominations from across Africa, as well as the African Diaspora, galvanizing conversations about Africa Now and the continent’s future.
Dr. Giami, commended the nominees, adding that, “they are all winners already, because, they have been selected by Africans out of the over 1.2 billion people on the continent, as those deserving of this exclusive recognition.”
The shortlist was preceded by a call for nomination and the eventual winners would be decided via a voting process.
Other nominees were shortlisted in different categories namely;African of the Year 2019, African Female Leader of the Year 2019, ALM Person of the Year 2019 – Educational Development, ALM Person of the Year 2019 – Employment Generation, ALM Person of the Year 2019 – Political Leadership.
About the Persons of the Year Award
The African Leadership Magazine Persons of the Year Award is a vote-based awards program, reserved for African business, political, diplomatic, Sports and Entertainment leaders, who are considered to have blazed the trail in different categories in the year under review.
The awards enjoy one of the most participatory processes, as Africans get to decide who takes the coveted crown in different categories. Winners are presented with the award in a colorful ceremony held annually in Johannesburg, South Africa.
About African Leadership Magazine
The African Leadership Magazine is published by African Leadership (UK) Limited, a company registered in the United Kingdom. The magazine focuses on bringing the best of Africa to a global audience, telling the African story from an African perspective, while evolving solutions to peculiar challenges being faced by the continent today.
Since its maiden edition, African Leadership Magazine has grown to become a leading pan-African flagship leadership-focused publication read by targeted international investors, business executives, government policymakers, and multilateral agencies across Africa, the Middle East and Asia, Europe, and the US.