Mobile Telecommunications Limited (MTC) on Monday announced that it will end its sponsorship towards the popular Namibian Annual Music Awards (NAMAs) next year, which will mark the 10th anniversary of the event.
The announcement was made by Chief of Human Capital and Corporate Affairs, Tim Ekandjo during the 2019 NAMA prize-giving and call for entries ceremony on Monday.
He said the 10th NAMAs in 2020 will be the last event it would sponsor – with an amount of over N.dollars 100 million invested in the event so far.
“MTC has made their contribution to the music industry, therefore, it is time for someone else to take over,” Ekandjo said.
During the past nine years, the mobile company has achieved a lot including making the annual event the best national music award ceremony on the African continent which exposed Namibian artists to over 15 million viewers, he further said.
“I wish to assure you that MTC remains very interested in the music industry, we have not lost trust in you and the conclusion of the NAMAs should therefore not give you that impression,” said Ekandjo.
He urged other corporates who wish to take over the awards to approach them, promising to share all logistics regarding the NAMAs.
On next year’s entries, he announced that the call for entries to next year’s awards is officially open as of Monday and will close on 13 December 2019 and urged artists not to wait until the last minute, warning that the vetting committee will disqualify their entries if they do not comply.
He said one special category will be added to the existing 25, namely ‘Artist of the Decade’, to celebrate and recognise the one artist that has the most NAMA accolades collectively over the 10 years of the event.
Ekandjo mentioned that all the artists that won at the 2019 NAMAs have indeed received their prize monies.