AFRIMA applauds single passport for all Africans

The African Union launched a single, common electronic passport for all Africans at the just concluded 27th AU Summit, in Kigali, Rwanda. AFRIMA applauded the ultimate goal of the single passport, which is to realize the dream of visa-free travel for African citizens within the African continent by 2020.

“The African Union’s plan to allow free movement of citizens within the African continent,” said President/Executive Producer, AFRIMA, Mike Dada, “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.”

He added that: “For us in AFRIMA, it is a strong step towards making every African citizen to 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.”

Speaking specifically on how the proposed plan works for the awards, he said, “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.”

The third edition of the All Africa Music Awards will take place will be hosted in Nigeria from 4 - 6 November. Submissions are now open to music artists, producers, video directors, songwriters and music/entertainment journalists. Submission of entries closes on 30 July. At last year's event, Diamond Platnumz emerged big winner with three awards including Artist of the Year.