When the management of Emerging Markets Telecommunication Services Limited (EMTS) assured of fulfilling its obligations to 2018 finalists of the 9mobile Prize for Literature, many had wondered how soon it was going to be.
The shortlist of three books was released back in January 2018, and the winner expected to be revealed around March of that year, which made critical stakeholders to reach out to prize adjudicators on its status.
Organisers, last year, had stated: “We are just concluding the process of 9mobile ownership change hence the delay in the announcement of the 2018 winner. We are hopeful that we will confirm a date for the announcement before the end of the third quarter.While reiterating the company’s commitment to the prize, in a statement issued in Lagos on Thursday, July 25, 2019, Layi Onafowokan, acting Director, Marketing, 9mobile, said winner from the 2018 edition shortlist would be announced soon.
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The wait, however, ended on Thursday, August 8, 2019.
The Nigerian writer, Ayobami Adebayo, during an event held at the 9mobile headquarters in Banana Island, Lagos, was unveiled winner of the 2018 edition of the Prize, the most prestigious literature prize for first time fiction writers of African origin.When the prize was launched, organisers had lofty ambitions: “The prize aims to serve as a platform for the discovery of new creative talent out of the continent and invariably promote the burgeoning publishing industry in Africa.
“By recognising and celebrating writers and other members of the literary community across Africa, we plan to bring some much needed awareness and acclaim to the art of Fiction writing while also applauding and rewarding the efforts of those who have ventured into this genre in recent times,” the company had noted.
By comparison, the Caine Prize for African Writing, awarded for a short story, is worth £10,000. The Nigeria Prize for Literature, which rotates among four genres (fiction, poetry, drama and children’s literature), is worth $100,000 (about £78,600), but is only open to Nigerian citizens. Her novel, Stay with Me, beat Lesley Nneka Arimah, another Nigerian’s What it Means When a Man Falls Down from the Sky and Asylum by Marcus Low from South Africa.