NaijaGems Photography Contest 2018 | Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State


United States Diplomatic Mission in Nigeria is now accepting entries for its 2018 NaijaGems Photography Contest. Deadline for the submission of entries is May 4, 2018, 11:59PM.

NaijaGems Photography Contest 2018

NaijaGems Photo Contest is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, and the United States Diplomatic Mission in Nigeria.

The United States Ambassador to Nigeria, W. Stuart Symington, initiated this project to raise national pride and awareness of Nigeria’s beauty.

“There are all across this country (Nigeria) places of spectacular beauty, including some of the rarest and most beautiful flora, flowers, fauna, rock structures, rivers, waterfalls , and historic structures, things created by God and things created by man from one end of this country to the other. We want you to take a picture of one of those Nigerian gems — things or places that cause every Nigerian and every other person in the world who sees it to go “WOW” — U.S. Ambassador W. Stuart Symington.

There is much to be admired and celebrated in Nigeria. We are giving Nigerians an opportunity to tell their positive stories in pictures.

See also: Embassy of Ireland in Nigeria #PeaceWriteNow Writing Contest 2018.

NaijaGems Photography Contest Benefits.

  • Contest Prize(s)
    1. Grand Prize: Canon EOS 5D mark iv
    2. First Runner: Canon EOS 80D with Len
    3. Second Runner up: Canon EOS Rebel T7i with Len
  • Winning photographs may be displayed on the U.S. Mission Nigeria’s website, social media properties and/or in the Embassy itself.
  • Winners have to confirm the acceptance of the prize in an email reply within three calendar days. If the acceptance is not confirmed by the required date, the Contest Sponsors reserve the right to select an alternate winner. Each winner must provide a valid physical mailing address where a prize, if any, is to be shipped. Contest Sponsors are not responsible for any problems related to the shipping of any prize, including, but not limited to, theft, delay, damage, or destruction/accidental loss by the shipping carrier.
  • Any unused portion of the prize is not transferable, convertible, or exchangeable and cannot be taken as cash. All taxes on or in connection with any prize, and the reporting consequences thereof, are the sole and exclusive responsibility of the winner.

NaijaGems Photography Contest Eligibility.

  1. Contestants must be an adult, 21 years and older on the date of entry into the contest. Contestants must be residents of Nigeria and may not be U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents.
  2. The individual submitting the entry will be considered the contestant and will be the only individual eligible to compete for the prize. Organizations are not eligible to compete for the prize, either as an entity, or through representation by an individual. In order to be eligible for the prize, the contestant must provide complete and accurate information.
  3. The following individuals are not eligible to participate in the contest: Employees, interns, directors, and officers of the Contest Sponsors, Flickr/Yahoo, Facebook, Instagram, or the U.S. Government; or any employees, interns, directors, or officers of any agencies, companies or entities involved in the administration, advertising, judging, creation, development, execution, and/or fulfillment of this contest, and the immediate family members (defined as spouse, recognized partner, parent, child, sibling, and spouse or “step” of each) and those living in the same household of each such individual.
  4. Once a submission has been accepted for entry into the contest, the contestant’s name (or User ID, if the contestant wishes to remain anonymous) and country may be publicly identified at the sole discretion of the contestant.

NaijaGems Photography Contest Key Dates.

The contest commences at April 6, 2018, at 12:00PM in West African Time (WAT). Entries may be submitted between April 6, 2018, and May 4, 2018, 11:59PM. Judging begins on May 8, 2018 and ends on May 25, 2018. 

NaijaGems Photography Contest – Selection of Winners.

  • All photos are subject to pre-screening by Contest Sponsors to ensure compliance with these Official Contest Rules. Any photos out of compliance will not be posted. Contest Sponsors reserve the right in their sole and absolute discretion to verify in the final analysis whether a potential finalist or potential winning photo submission has fully complied with these Official Contest Rules before posting to the contest site, awarding prize, recognizing a winner, etc.
  • Judges: The contest jury is comprised of Public Affairs Section Staff Members of the U.S. Mission Nigeria and a professional photographer and contact of the Mission.
    1. PAS appointed judges will select the top 37 photos, one from each State of Nigeria and the FCT.
    2. PAS will post all photos on the new U.S. Mission Nigeria Instagram account (@usinnigeria) and create Facebook photo album. Nigerians will be asked to vote for their favorite photos via engagements (likes, comments and shares). A participant’s total votes will be the sum of user engagement on Instagram.
      Note: Engagement is combination of comments, like and shares while engagement rate is ratio of Engagement/Total Users.
    3. The top 10 photos by popular demand as determined by user engagement will move to the final stage.
    4. Judges will select the top 3 photos as the winners of the contest (1st, 2nd and 3rd)
  • Winners: Each winner and/or finalist will be required to sign and return to Contest Sponsors a statement of eligibility and liability/publicity release, and provide a short bio(where applicable), and a brief statement about the submission; otherwise the winner and/or finalist will be ineligible for any prize. Winners and finalists may choose to use an alias instead of their real name and may request other identifying information be kept private.
  • Winner(s) will be contacted via e-mail at the e-mail address they provided for registration. The inability of Contest Sponsors to contact a potential winner may result in disqualification and/or selection of an alternate winner from among all remaining eligible submissions.

NaijaGems Photography Contest Rules.

Content Requirements

  1. Submissions must not contain obscenity, explicit sexual material, nudity, profanity, graphic violence, calls or incitement to violence, commercial solicitation or commercial promotion. Submissions must conform to local law and must not contain content or images that could be considered abusive, inflammatory, denigrating, or disrespectful to any of the Contest Sponsors, or to any groups, individuals or institutions. Submissions must adhere both in appearance and in fact to the norms of civil discourse. In other words, the content of all submissions must be suitable for a global, public audience.
  2. Submissions must be original content created by the contestant and must not contain any elements that are protected by someone else’s copyright or otherwise subject to third party intellectual property or proprietary rights, including privacy and publicity rights (except as expressly permitted below in (d)). Contest Sponsors recognize no allowance for “fair use” of copyrighted material, nor do Contest Sponsors recognize allowance for use of licensed materials created or owned by a third party.
  3. Contest Sponsors reserve the right to disqualify, at their sole and absolute discretion, any submission that does not adhere to these criteria and to the intent and substance of these Official Contest Rules.
  4. In the event of any question or difference of views regarding compliance with, interpretation, or application of these content requirements or other provisions of these Official Contest Rules, Contest Sponsors reserve the exclusive right to resolve such questions or differences of views in their sole discretion.
  5. By submitting a photograph to the contest, the contestant affirms that he or she has obtained written consent from all individuals whose image or likeness appears in the photograph (or from the individuals’ parent/legal guardian if any such individuals are considered a minor in their country of residence), and that he or she has obtained the necessary rights, licenses, consents, and permissions to use all material such as music, images, text and other content in the submission. The contestant further affirms that he or she is prepared to provide reliable documentation of any and all such consents, licenses, etc., upon request. Failure to obtain such rights, license consents, and permissions may result in the disqualification of the photo submission at the Contest Sponsors’ sole and absolute discretion.

Technical Format Requirements

  • Photo submissions must be in JPG format, at least 1024×768 pixels (300 pixels per inch) and not more than 10MB. Submissions should not have any visible watermarks, signatures, or personally identifiable information.
  • Retouching of Photos: The submitted photograph cannot be significantly retouched: nothing in the photograph (people, animals, scenery, objects, etc.) may be altered, removed, augmented or rearranged. Cropping is permitted, as is modest darkening or lightening of parts of the image. Photo metadata must be retained.

How to Enter NaijaGems Photography Contest.

  • Contestants will be asked to produce high-resolution original photographs of spectacular beauty that are peculiar to a region or state; the locations should be a symbol of pride to the people and culture of that state.
  • Two identical photos are to be taken; one should include a human subject who verifies the originality of the work and he/she should be tagged in the submission.
  • An entry is made by uploading the photos to Flickr with a clear description (250 words max) of the location and why the object or scene is important to that community, state, or the nation as a whole.
  • Upload photos to Instagram and tag the U.S. Mission Nigeria (@usinnigeria), tag the human subject in the photo and adopt the contest hashtag, #NaijaGEMs.
  • Photo metadata must be visible on Flickr to qualify. Manipulated photos will be disqualified.
  • Contestants are to complete an entry/sign up form [http://bit.ly/naijagemsform] after uploading the photos with the following information:
    1. Contestant details
    2. Flickr photo URLs
    3. Instagram ID
    4. Confirm the originality of the photo
    5. Sign a release – allowing the Embassy to post and share the photos

Once a photograph is submitted, it is considered a final submission and may not be modified, edited, or replaced. Individual contestants may submit no more than one photo set.

Participation in this contest is deemed as acceptance of these Official Contest Rules.

A submission must be an original photograph, taken by the contestant.

Apply Here Official Link

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Olusegun Fapohunda
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This post is authored by , the founder and editor of MySchoolGist. Boasting over a decade of expertise in the education sector, Olusegun offers current insights into educational trends, career opportunities, and the latest news. Connect with him on X/Twitter for more updates.
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