Entries for the 10th edition of Nigerian Breweries Golden Pen Awards got underway on Wednesday, 13 June 2018 as the company began accepting applications from participants.

According to the company, entries for the awards will end on Friday 13 July 2018.

Speaking to the media at the award flag-off, Nigerian Breweries Corporate Affairs Adviser, Kufre Ekanem, said the Golden Pen Awards, which honours journalists who abide by the ethics of the profession has impacted the role of the press in the socio-economic development of the country.

Ekanem said that the company is again directing the attention of the Nigerian media to the area of agriculture, local sourcing and industrial development to make the country achieve its full potential as a self-reliant and developed country with a diversified economic base. He enjoined journalists from all media platforms with reports published in 2017 and focusing on Agriculture, Local Sourcing and Industrial Development to avail themselves of the opportunity presented by the Award. A maximum of three entries is allowed per journalist.

All entries for the award are to be sent to: TPT International via goldenpenawards@tptinternational.com or the corporate address at: PR Place, 6/8 Bola Ogunsanya Crescent, Magodo GRA, Shangisha, Lagos

The Corporate Affairs Adviser noted that for this 10th edition of the award, the Nigerian Breweries Golden Pen Reporter of the Year will get a cash prize of N2 Million Naira plus a gift item; the first runner-up will get N1 Million Naira while the 2nd runner-up will go home with N750 Thousand Naira.

In the photojournalist category, the overall winner will receive N1 million and a gift item while the first and second runners up will be rewarded with N750,000 and N500,000 respectively just as the winner of the Nigerian Breweries Golden Pen Report of the Year will receive N1 million and a gift.

He said since the beginning of the award, it has produced nine grand prizewinners in the Journalist of the Year category, six grand prize winners in the Photo Journalist of the Year category and four others in the Report of the Year category, including several runners up in the three categories.

“Looking back over the last nine editions, we are happy that the initiative has continued to help improve the quality of journalism in Nigeria going by the quality of entries we receive every year as attested to by our independent panel of judges and stakeholders in the Nigerian media who have been part of the awards over the years,” he said.

Speaking at the event, the 2017 winner of the Nigerian Breweries Golden Pen Report of the Year, Mojeed Alabi, expressed appreciation to Nigerian Breweries for recognizing journalists and rewarding excellence in the media profession.