Designed to be awarded to the publisher of the best African fiction or non-fiction title, with the inaugural winner to be honoured at the CANEX WKND in 2024, the annual prize will be open to writers from all over the African continent.

Performing the launch as part of the CANEX Summit taking place alongside the third Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF2023), Ms. Adichie, who was joined by Eghosa Imaseun, a writer who is also publisher of Narrative Landscape Press, drew from her experience of running an annual creative writing workshop, which counts Imaseun as one of its alumni, to create and announce the prize.

“CANEX is about hope - the hope of many more African stories,” she said. “We need more African stories because stories matter. Stories can take away dignity, but they can also restore dignity. Stories shape politics and perceptions.”

According to Ms. Adichie, submissions of creative works of fiction and non-fiction from writers will be reviewed by a team of experienced judges to select a long list before being narrowed down to the best works. The quality of writing, editing and production would be the criteria for evaluating the works.

The CANEX Prize for Publishing in Africa is part of a strategic intervention programme under the CANEX Book Factory and is aimed at showcasing and elevating the African book value chain and increasing capacity in that sector. The CANEX Book Factory seeks to foster a literary culture and to promote sustainable business practices within the industry. The programme also offers a pan-African annual writing workshop and a quarterly newsletter for African writing and book industry players.

In comments following the launch, Prof. Benedict Oramah, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank, said that the Bank was supporting the Prize because of the pressing need to ensure the recognition of African talent.

“There is a need to create a platform to recognise African talent in our own local context so that they are not left always competing for prizes from other jurisdictions,” he said.

Prof. Oramah said that Afreximbank’s ambitions for the prize were very high and that the goal was to see an African equivalent of global publishing awards come to fruition.

The CANEX programme, set up by Afreximbank, seeks to facilitate the development and growth of the creative and cultural industries in Africa and the African diaspora. It provides a range of financing and non-financing instruments and interventions aimed at supporting trade and investment in Africa’s creative sector.

IATF2023, Africa’s largest trade and investment fair, opened on 9 November and will run till 15 November 2023.