Follow The Money founder joins global jury for prestigious innovation awards

• Nigerian anti-corruption advocator Hamzat Lawal has been selected arsenic a juror for the 2024/25 Nelson Mandela–Graça Machel Innovation Awards
• He joins a planetary sheet to measure implicit 800 entries spotlighting societal impact, innovation, and assemblage transformation
• Lawal’s assignment recognizes his grassroots enactment with Follow The Money and his planetary power successful transparency and accountability

Prominent Nigerian activistic and laminitis of Follow The Money, Hamzat Lawal, has been appointed arsenic a assemblage subordinate for the 2024/25 variation of the Nelson Mandela–Graça Machel Innovation Awards, an inaugural of CIVICUS, the planetary civilian nine alliance.

This prestigious award, present successful its 20th year, recognizes changemakers and organizations whose inventive efforts beforehand societal justice, span societal and governmental divides, and animate transformative interaction worldwide.

Nigerian activistic has joined the assemblage for planetary Mandela–Machel awards. Photo: FB/Hamzat B. Lawal
Source: Facebook

Nigerian activistic joins divers sheet of jurors

Lawal joins a distinguished and divers sheet of jurors drawn from assorted regions, including Abhishek Thakore (India), Rajae Boujnah (Morocco), Tenywa John Grace (Uganda), and Rhaea Russell-Cartwright (United Kingdom).

Safia Khan, Innovation & Quality Management Officer astatine CIVICUS, shared that the 2024/25 variation has attracted important planetary interest.

“We’ve received conscionable implicit 800 applications from 76 countries, successful aggregate languages including English, Spanish, French, and Arabic,” she noted successful her invited connection to the jury.

The judging process is scheduled to statesman successful March 2025 and volition impact reviewing standout applications crossed 5 thematic categories.

Lawal and his chap jurors are tasked with evaluating submissions based connected originality, measurable assemblage impact, and scalability.

About Hamzat Lawal

Lawal is the Chief Executive of Connected Development (CODE), a civic enactment committed to empowering marginalized communities. His signature initiative, Follow The Money, has gained planetary designation for monitoring nationalist spending successful distant regions and ensuring authorities accountability.

His accordant way grounds of championing transparency and assemblage empowerment led to his information by a CIVICUS confederation member.

Lawal is the laminitis of Follow the Money and CEO of Connected Development. Photo: FB/Hamzat B. Lawal
Source: Facebook

In a ceremonial invitation to Lawal, CIVICUS wrote: “Having researched your anti-corruption work, we judge we would truly payment from your expertise to assistance america admit and observe the astir innovative minds and projects of the year.”

Reacting to the appointment, Lawal described the accidental arsenic profoundly meaningful.

“It is an honour to service arsenic a juror for specified a almighty inaugural that shines a airy connected the courageous innovators moving to marque the satellite much just. This is not conscionable astir awards—it’s astir fueling anticipation and accelerating grassroots change,” helium said.

Connected Development besides shared the quality via societal media, describing Lawal’s enactment arsenic fitting designation for his years of community-driven work:

“As a grassroots campaigner, mobilizer, and innovator of respective societal interaction projects similar @4lowthemoney, Hamzat Lawal’s (@HamzyCODE) assignment arsenic a assemblage is simply a cleanable acceptable to assistance spotlight innovations that uplift humanity.”

CIVICUS has announced that updates connected the awards ceremonial and victor announcements volition beryllium made disposable successful the coming weeks.

Lawal’s increasing planetary illustration includes erstwhile appointments specified arsenic serving connected the advisory assembly for the Global Citizen Fellowship Program successful 2021 and judging the UN SDG Action Awards successful 2022.

Nigerian writer Rasaq Malik takes location Anhinga Prize

Earlier, Legit.ng reported that Rasaq Malik Gbolahan, a US-based Nigerian writer and scholar, had been named the victor of the prestigious 2024 Anhinga Prize for Poetry for his manuscript The Origin of Wounds.

Selected by the salient literate justice Kaveh Bassiri, this postulation has been described arsenic "a beauteous elegy to warfare and violence."

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Source: Legit.ng