The Future Awards Africa

The Future Awards Africa (previously known as The Future Awards), are a set of awards given by The Future Project (TFP), a social enterprise communications firm affiliated to Red Africa. The awards celebrate young people between the ages of 18 and 31, who have made outstanding achievement in the year under consideration. Forbes has described the awards as "Nigeria’s most important awards for outstanding young Nigerians".

The idea for the awards was conceived by Chude Jideonwo and Adebola Williams in 2005.

The first awards ceremony was held on February 6, 2006 at the Muson Centre in Lagos to honor the outstanding achievements of the 2005/2006 season and subsequent editions have been held at diverse locations, with that of 2011 held on January 30, 2011 at the Landmark Events Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos. Since the seventh season in 2012, it has been held at the Altec Azcum in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. 2013's edition was hosted by on-air personality, Toke Makinwa and rapper, Vector.

In 2013, the name of the awards was changed to reflect the partnership with the African Union and its pan-Africanness.

The awards are given to winners in ten categories, including the Young Person of the Year category, trimmed down from the initial twenty-one categories. Some of the categories are:

Nomination results are usually announced to the public in late January.

There is a 4-stage, 3-month long judging process involving a board of judges and an audit committee. Judges come from all over Africa. The judges include Mfonobong Nsehe, Belinda Otas (Assistant Editor, New African Woman), Brenda Wendo (Deputy Features Editor, The Star Newspaper, Kenya), Billie Adwoa McTernan (Ghana correspondent, The Africa Report), Adam Bouhadma (Editor, 9rayti.com, Morocco), Michelle Atagana (Managing Editor, Memeburn).

Those on the audit committee are: Katja Schiller Nwator (Leadership Development and CSR Manager, The Tony Elumelu Foundation), Mahamadou Sy (founder and executive director of the Institut Supérieur de Développement Local (ISDL), Senegal), Wendy Luhabe (author), Abiola Alabi (MD, MNet Africa), Tonye Cole (executive director, Sahara Group), Ndidi Nwuneli (founder, LEAP Africa), Mo Abudu (CEO, EbonyLife TV), Gbenga Sesan (founder, Paradigm Initiative Nigeria), Eikem Nutifafa (founding partner, Oxford and Beaumont, Ghana), Chi-Chi Okonjo (publisher, Ventures Africa), Victoria Trabosh (founder, Ithafari Foundation), Taa Wongbe (managing partner The Khana Group), Ayo Ajayi (MD, PATH Global) and Jennah Scott (director, Liberia Philanthropy Secretariat, Office of the President).

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