All roads will lead to the Eko Hotel and Suites Victoria Island Lagos today, 28th November 2025, for the annual The Voice Achievers Award.
The award which is taking place for the first time in Nigeria in its 14 years history, is a pet project of the Netherlands based The Voice News Magazine led by veteran Nigerian journalist, Pastor Elvis Iruh. The award event is coming to Nigeria after successfully hosting it in the Netherlands severally, once in Dubai, twice in Kenya and once in The Gambia.
The award which aims to positively project the image of Africa and work towards its advancement, will honor 35 African achievers in different categories.
The first segment of the event will be a Business Dialogue/Discussions centred on the Dutch/Africa Strategy Plan from 2023 to 2032. The theme of the Dialogue is: “Debunking Notions, Reshaping Mindsets In Doing Business In Africa”.
The first segment is organized in collaboration with the Dutch Embassy in Nigeria and other diaspora partners. It is a gathering where knowledge, networking and the understanding of how best to have mutual trust for the benefits of Africa and Europe would be discussed between 9:00AM to 3:00PM. The discussion would be looking at the various misconceptions and mostly wrong or misinformed notions about Africa and Europe using Nigeria and the Netherlands as case study.
The segment will feature well grounded speakers including Cissy Nalumansi, a young film maker and a story teller from Uganda who is the brain behind the project – Debunking Notions and Reshaping Mindsets.
Nalumansi and Dutch Journalist, Marc Broere they are working with the Voice News magazine to bring this across the African and European nations bearing in mind that whatever affects Nigeria/Netherlands relationship affects the rest of the African continent and the West.
The Consul General of the Dutch Embassy in Nigeria, Mr. Michel Deelen would also speak before the keynote speaker, Dr Eniola Ajayi, Nigeria’s former Ambassador to the Netherlands who would be speaking on the topic: “Shaping Intercontinental Business between Africa and Europe”.
This will be followed by a panel of discussion featuring Dr. Kenneth Gbandi; CEO of Africa-German information Center, Germany; Michel Deelen, Consul General of the Kingdom of The Netherlands Embassy in Nigeria; Mrs. Thessa Bagu, Managing Director of Commercium Africa in Nigeria and Ehi Braimah, Director/CEO of Neo Media & Marketing consultant. They would take questions from the moderator and the audience would be able to contribute to the dialogue.
The segment will also feature a sub-session on women empowerment to be moderated by Rotarian Berneditha Rijssel-Omusuo from the Netherlands would speak on “Leveraging the Africa Diaspora for Nigeria’s economic development”. Alongside other Diaspora women, they will dialogue with Nigerian women participants and to see areas of possible collaborations and working together.
The event will climax with The VOICE AWARD GALA NIGHT which is planned to present an exclusive evening celebrating distinction, culture, fashion, music and impact while honouring voices of excellence shaping our communities.
