Elisalat promotes Lagos Photo festival

The fourth Lagos Photo festival is once again a joint effort between the African Arts Foundation and the Etisalat Nigeria, telecommunications company. This year’s theme is “The Mega City and the Non City. A look at urban development in African cities and the influence of technology and the digital revolution.”

One of the new events this year, in line with the theme of the digital revolution, is the launch of the LagosPhoto App, which will work as a guide to the festival, its events and its photos. There is also a competition for amateur photographers to submit their own images of Lagos. The festival includes exhibitions, workshops, presentations and large-scale outdoor use of photos in public spaces.

Etisalat, the Emirates Telecommunications Corporation, is based in the UAE and operates in 18 countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. It entered the Nigerian market in 2008 and was responsible for the launch of the first broadband services in the country. In spring 2013 it announced a $500 million investment programme.

In June it launched the Etisalat Prize for Literature, the first pan-African prize for first-time writers of published fiction. The chair of the jury is Pumla Gqola of the department of African Literature at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.

The winners will be announced in February 2014 and the prize money is £15,000, a book tour of three African countries and a fellowship at East Anglian University in the UK.

For unpublished writers there is the innovative Etisalat Flash Fiction prize, a story of 300 words to be voted on by the general public. Submissions closed on 1 Sept, voting is from 1-29 Oct and the winner of the £1,000 prize, will be announced on 12 Nov.