AFRIMA partners PwC for 2021 awards

The All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA) has partnered with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Nigeria to ensure more credibility in the vote-counting and results-distribution processes of the upcoming awards.

In a statement on Wednesday, PwC said the collaboration involves the company’s assessment of AFRIMA’s voting system’s controls and functionalities for vulnerabilities, accuracy as well as integrity.

PwC also disclosed that it will monitor the public and academy voting portals to collate and present the sealed results at the awards ceremony.

According to the company, the measure became imperative to sustain AFRIMA’s extant reputation by ensuring transperancy in the selection of its award winners ahead of the 2021 edition billed to hold between November 19-21.

“AFRIMA exists to reward rising and established talents and showcase their music to the African population and global audience. Thus, it is vital that the event is void of voting irregularities, fraud and counterfeiting, and that awarded artists are well-deserving of the recognition,” it read.

Femi Osinubi, the company’s West Africa telecoms, media and technology industry leader, expressed optimism that the collaboration would further improve AFRIMA’s system.

“Today’s audiences are far more socially connected, informed and empowered. With a little bit of information, they can detect and call out fraudulent schemes in no time. Accordingly, businesses must ensure the legitimacy of their practices,” Osinubi said.

“More importantly, award ceremonies like AFRIMA must follow strict protocol handling their balloting processes. They must handle these processes with the highest level of professionalism and trust.

“In addition, in recent years, the dynamism of Nigerian and African music has been reflected in the widespread recognition of works produced by African artists on the international scene. We are proud to support the growth of the industry.”