A marketing communications specialist with Carat Nigeria, Oluwademilade Jejelola, has emerged as the second runner-up in the 2023 Young Pitcher Competition.

Jejelola, who is a media planner and strategist with Carat Nigeria,  a MediaFuse-Dentsu agency, competed in the keenly contested media category of the pan-African award.

The Biochemist from Caleb University (Jejelola) won bronze after her outstanding performance in the competition that had over 100 contestants from different African countries.

Other winners in the media category at the Young Pitcher Media Competition are Barbara Abwoga from Dentsu Kenya, who won gold, and Ashleigh Sayle from Carat South Africa, who bagged silver.

Meanwhile, Mary Oluwakanyinsola Owolabi from Covenant University emerged as the winner of the 2023 Future Creative Leaders Academy programme after live presentations by the five finalists.

The silver medal was won by Ayomide Victoria Akinnugba, a student of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, while the Bronze medal was taken by Joshua Popoola of the University of Ibadan.

Dr. Kehinde Oyesomi, a lecturer at Covenant University became the FCLA Lecturer of the Year 2023 for his role of supervisory responsibilities to the overall winning student.

Covenant University also won the FCLA Best School of the Year 2023.

The FCLA Best School of the Year Cup is given to the institutional participants whose delegates have garnered the highest combined scores in the competition, according to Adekemi Alegbeleye, General Manager of dentsu X Nigeria who doubles as the 2023 Future Creative Leaders Academy.

The Future Creative Leaders Academy is a youth programme of the Pitcher Festival of Creativity designed for students in universities and other tertiary institutions across Africa.

The Group Chief Executive Officer of MediaFuse-Dentsu, Emeka Chris Okeke, commended the winners, especially Jejelola, for their outstanding performance.

“Jejelola’s impressive performance is a result of our continuous and persistent investment in training employees. We are proud that about two years after joining one of our agencies, she has transformed into an award-winning media professional. We wish her the best in her career advancement,” he added.

On his part, the Managing Director of Carat Nigeria, Igwe Okeke, described Jejelola’s emergence as a product of hard work.

“This is an amazing achievement. This will serve as an encouragement to other young ladies that hard work pays off. We are indeed proud of Jejelola for the feat and hopeful that this will challenge her to do more. It is evident that under the right working environment, Nigerians can outshine others globally,” Okeke said.

All the winners will be officially celebrated at the Pitcher Awards Ceremony on May 20, 2023, at the MUSON Centre in Lagos, Nigeria.