Ugo Aliogo
In a bid to support breakthrough efforts in the internet space, the convener of Gage award, Johnson Anorh, has expressed desire to use the award to spotlight innovation in the digital space.
Anorh, who disclosed this to journalists’ weekend in Lagos, during the maiden edition of the awards, with the theme: ‘Celebrating the Good of the Web’, said the internet has been the channel where most of the innovative activities in the society took place, therefore noted that the organisers, “decided to use such as important award as a standard to access some of the breakthrough efforts taking place on the internet.”
He stated that the award has provided a platform to access the progress that the youths are making in the internet space and reward such efforts.
“Don’t forget that we are in the jet age, and technology is a key driver and the youths are making a lot of progress in that space. Moreover, we are looking at how to channel the energies of the youths for good. The gage awards is a veritable platform, I believe,” he said.
Some the winners at the event were, Guaranty Trust Bank who won the Best Banking App of the year, the Best Data Service Provider was won by- Airtel Nigeria, the Special Recognition Award was won by the Chief Executive Office of the Nigerian Communications Commission, (NCC), Prof Umar Danbatta and the Online Personality of the year was Segun Awosanya and others.
Anorh who is also the founder of the Oakland and Johnson, hinted: “We had five audience choice awards. The audience choice award allows the audience to determine who wins the award. Then we have 19 categories that are based on judges because the audience don’t have the information that will help to win that category such as the website of the year. But the professional knows that there is user interface, and structure navigation, therefore those types of categories we have given to the professionals to judge. While for the banking app of the year, the breakout app of the year, and others, we are aware of the bank that renders the best services especially in making banking transaction easier.
“These categories are audience driven. So the gage awards have come to stay. This is the maiden edition and we hope to improve what we are seeing presently. This is the beginning of a calendar, and we hope to see a lot of things planned. We are looking at organising the gage room which is going to be an event in University campuses. The event will be aimed at engaging tech hubs on campuses and access the innovations that they are doing. We are going to be busy all year round before the next gage awards.
“The word gage is coined from the word “engage” most of what we do online is engage. The parent company of gage awards is 18 years old. We have a sister company WN2 Africa. Once any discovery is on the spotlight, it is easier for people to beat such discovery. Therefore gage awards are set to spotlight some of the innovative works taking place in the internet space. For instance, GT bank won the banking App of the year, the award will challenge other brands to work hard next time to win. The key focus for us is to drive competition across the value chain.”
