BTV unveils $5000 Africa Jollof Rice Challenge

A lifestyle and entertainment television network, BTV, has initiated a competition that is elevating the recent controversy around jollof rice to a new level.

The Brand Television Network did this on Friday when it unveiled the African Jollof Rice Challenge.

According to the company, the project is a continental, lifestyle and entertainment taste tour and cooking contest that seeks to discover the country that has the best jollof rice in Africa.

The star prize is $5000, which is expected to be given on August 22, at the grand finale that will coincide with the World Jollof Rice Day.

On the rationale  behind it, the Executive Producer at Btv, Felix King, said the argument on jollof rice had inspired social network and street conversations across Africa, especially among West African countries, where jollof Rice is most popular.

He said, “There is no official position yet on which country has the best jollof rice in Africa, hence, the Btv desires to unravel the mystery through this contest. None of the perspectives has proved convincing, despite Nigeria’s strong claims to the African cuisine. The different viewpoints on the streets have only generated more controversies and continuous placement of different points to back up individual claims.”

The jollof rice argument erupted when the Minister of Information, Tourism and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, was quoted as noting in an interview that the Senegalese jollof rice tasted better than Nigeria’s.

King, however, noted that the programme would celebrate the best of Africa in terms of its arts and culture.

“Btv is a content generation and production organisation. It is a general entertainment and lifestyle audio-visual production and live theatre organisation that generates and showcases reality programmes, live drama, musicals, TV and radio shows with the philosophy that everything is a brand,” he added.

Another Executive Producer at Btv, Ororo Pattaya, explained that the challenge would start with an online recipe contest, where the best contestants would be selected for the live screening and then the grand finale.

-Punch