Nigeria Prize for Literature


Nigeria Prize for Literature is a Nigerian literary award given annually since 2004 to honor literary erudition by Nigerian authors. The award rotates among four genres; fiction, poetry, drama and children's literature, repeating the cycle every four years. With the total prize value of to individual winner, it is the biggest literary award in Africa and one of the richest literary awards in the world.

History

The Prize was established in 2004 and sponsored by Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas company. However the process and judging are administered by Nigerian Academy of Science with advisory board made up of members from Nigeria Academy of Letters and Association of Nigerian Authors.
The Prize was initially $20,000. This was increased to $30,000 in 2006, and again to $50,000 in 2008. In 2011 the prize was increased to $100,000.

Years with no winner

Since inception, the award is normally awarded in October. But for three non-consecutive years, the panel of the judges couldn't come to conclusion on the winner, this resulted in the award not awarded in 2004, 2009 and 2015.

Past recipients