GAGE Awards 2021: Mr Macaroni, Aisha Yesufu, Nengi, Others Make Lists Of Finalist

The likes of Debo Adedayo better known as Mr Macaroni, activist Aisha Yesufu and former Big Brother Naija housemates, Erica Nlewedim and Nengi Hampson all made it in the GAGE Awards 2021 nomination shortlist.

Naija News understands that organizers of the GAGE Awards 2021 a few moments ago declared open its portal for the voting of digital practitioners who emerged from different categories.

The award which allows over fifteen thousand Nigerian citizens to vote those who best served their interest in the use of digital platforms in the outgoing year is only restricted to five categories which are: Online Comedian of the Year, Banking App of the Year, Digital Artiste of the Year, Breakout App of the Year and Data Service Provider of the Year.

Speaking about the final lists of nominees in the various categories, the convener of the GAGE Awards, Mr Johnson Anorh, said it was a difficult task arriving at the current stage of the award, noting that the numbers of visits by voters in the last 24 hours have been overwhelming.

The Nominees for the Banking App of the Year are VBANK, GTBANK, Zenith Bank, Access Bank and Alat by WEMA BANK. The Data Service Provider of the Year includes; MTN, Airtel, Globacom, Swift Networks and 9Mobile.

The Breakout App of the Year category nominees are; Airopay, WhotAfrica, Zoom, TiKTok, and Clubhouse. Online Comedian of the Year nominees are; Mr Macaroni, Lasisi Elenu, Sydney Talker, MC Lively, and 2019 winner, Taaooma. Influencer of the year category nominees are; Aisha Yesufu, Tomike Adeoye, Erica Nlewedim, Nengi Hampson and Pamilerin.

Entrepreneur of the Year; Charles Oyakhilome(CEO,Airopay), Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi(Founder, Paystack), Tope Awotona(CEO, Calendly), Babs Ogundeyi (CEO, Kuda Bank and Chijioke Dozie, CEO, OneFi and Carbon).

Online News Platform of the year are AriseTvOnline, ChannelsTv Online, Opera News, Punch Online, BBC Pidgin. Online Film/video documentary of the Year nominees include; Bayi by Dianne Russet, Fishbone by Anakle Films, CNN Documentary on EndSars, the Critics Company.

Other Categories of the GAGE 2021 Awards Are:

The nominees for Online Campaign of the Year are *444# USSD campaign by Airtel, #ShotOnOppo by Oppo, #WearItForMe campaign by MTN and Dettol Hand Wash Challenge.

Nominees for Website of the year include; Bet9ja.com,iselify.com, dstvafica.com, trace.tv, and medplusnig.com. Nominees for Content Creator of the Year (platform) of the year are; NdaniTv, RedTv, Accelerate Tv, NetFlix and PulseTv.

The nominees for Webseries of the Year include; Shuga Naija, Skinny Girl in Transit, The Mens Club, Therapy and Call to bar.

Nominees for Blog of the Year are; Nairaland, Linda Ikeji, Bella Naija, NaijaLoaded and Nairametrics.

The nominees for the Best Digital Financial Platform include; Paystack, Flutterwave, PAGA, Opay and Palmcredit.

Nominees for App of the Year are; TikTok, Microsoft teams, Zoom, Google Meet and Netflix. The Nominees for Podcast of the Year include; Pod Save Africa, Letter to boys, I said what I said, From Lagos with Love and The Irregular show.

Naija News understands that the Online Influencer of the Year category is been divided into the voters choice i.e the audience select their winner and the GAGE Academy choice which would be determined by the GAGE Academy. While winners in the other 15 categories such as Website of the Year, Best Digital Financial Platform among others will also be judged by the GAGE academy based on pre-defined measuring indicators that are beyond the reach or knowledge of the generality of the public. The voting will be open till the 15th of March 2021 when the winners emerge.

Meanwhile, Nigerian comedian, Bovi was said to have caused quite a stir at the 14th edition of the Headies Award which was held on Sunday 21st February 2021, Naija News reports.