Iyamah Named ‘Young Person of the Year’ at The Future Awards

Nigerian-Canadian swim and ready-to-wear fashion designer and CEO, Andrea Iyamah has been honoured as the ‘Young Person of the Year’ at the 16th edition of the Future Awards Africa held on Sunday, 20 February, 2022.

The 28-year-old is the founder of eponymous custom couture brand, ‘Andrea Iyamah’.

She is said to have taught herself the craft of garment-making and design as a teenager, and later used the coding she learned in college to build the first iteration of her website.

Speaking at the Awards, Iyamah thanked the organisers of The Future Awards Africa for providing a “great platform of recognition.”

“This has been a fantastic night, absolutely well produced – I’m in fashion and we are very detailed. I absolutely loved the entire experience,” she said.

In clinching the ultimate prize, Iyamah was able to ward off opposition from the other nominees such as 29-year-old Egyptian footballer, Mohamed Salah; 32-year-old Zimbabwean health campaigner and founder of Spark R.E.A.D, Angeline Makore; 27-year-old Nigerian fabrication engineer, Jerry Mallo, and 29-year-old Ethiopian Chief Executive Officer of Industrial Parks Development Corporation, Lelise Neme.

“The Future Awards Africa has a mandate to build empowered citizens across Africa, through inclusive enterprise and active citizenship and while all nominees in the category have challenged the norm and have blazed the trail for others to follow, Andrea’s consistent strides over the years, coupled her focus on human capital development stood her out this year,”

Seun Oluyemi, Chief Content Officer at RED | for Africa and Team Lead, The Future Awards Africa commented.