AFRIMA COMMENDS AFRICAN UNION’s SINGLE PASSPORT

The International Committee of The All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA) has 
commended the African Union (AU) for the launch of a single, common 
electronic passport (e-Passport) for all Africans at the just concluded 
27th AU Summit, in Kigali, Rwanda.

It also applauded the ultimate goal of the single passport which is set 
to realize the dream of visa-free travel for African citizens within the 
African continent by 2020.

In the same vein, the AU’s single, common electronic passport throughout 
the continent falls squarely within the framework of Africa’s Agenda 
2063 and has the specific aim of facilitating free movement of persons, 
goods and services around the continent in order to foster intra-Africa 
trade, integration and socio-economic development.
Reacting to this development, President/ Executive Producer, AFRIMA, 
Mike Dada, said, “The African Union's plan to allowing free movement of 
citizens within the African continent is a stepping stone towards 
building stronger unity among African nations and this is what we at the 
International Committee of AFRIMA have been canvassing and  propagating 
for years in line with the AFRIMA’s vision.

“For us in AFRIMA, it is a strong step towards making every African 
citizen 
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think and act beyond national identities and identify themselves as 
citizens of the African continent with a sense of pride that, ‘I am an 
African.’
“We have found that it is easier to travel to Europe and America from 
Africa than Africans travelling within Africa. Yearly, we face a big 
hurdle in visa processing, direct flights and protocol to bring in over 
880 nominees/superstars and their guests, 150 production crew members, 
international media and over 2000 international invited guests to the 
AFRIMA Awards ceremony annually.”

“The single passport will also ease and facilitate one of the AFRIMA 
objectives which is to engage all the stakeholders who are critical to 
the awards process to give them a platform for knowledge sharing and 
capacity-building on the continent. AFRIMA has embarked and organised 
stakeholders’ engagements and press conferences in over 25 African 
countries in the five regions of Africa. This we will do until we cover 
the 54 member states,” he concluded.

In partnership with the African Union Commission, AUC, The All Africa 
Music Awards, AFRIMA, is a continental music and cultural initiative 
developed to celebrate, reward and showcase the rich musical heritage of 
Africa, stimulate conversations among Africans and between Africa and 
the rest of the globe about the great potential and values of the 
African culture and artistic legacy for the purpose of creating jobs, 
reducing poverty, calling attention of world leaders to Africa and 
promoting the positive image of Africa to the world.

In line with the AFRIMA 3.0 calendar, submission of entries closes on 
July 30, 2016. There are 34 award categories open to music artistes, 
producers, video directors, songwriters and music/entertainment 
journalists as well as the hitherto unheralded music professionals. The 
spectacular 2016 awards ceremony will be hosted in Nigeria in November 
4-6. This will be preceded by the AFRIMA Music Village and Africa Music 
Summit.