BIC on Thursday announced the winners of its Art Master Africa Competition 2022 in a ceremony that marked the fifth edition of the competition by the stationery manufacturer.

Themed ‘Celebrating Africa’ the competition encouraged artists to create art showcasing their own identity and perceptions of Africa and its diverse cultures using a BIC ballpoint pen.

Three Art Master Africa competition winners and six national winners were picked from across the continent including Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Uganda, Morocco, and Tunisia.

The winning artworks were selected from a total of 6,574 pieces which were submitted with this year’s submissions marking a significant increase compared to those received in 2021.

The panel of judges that made the final selection of winners consisted of experts from BIC, top artists across the region and previous winners of the Art Master Africa competition.

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Nosakhare Igbinosa won this year’s competition with his portrait titled ‘Bona’, followed in second place by Hezekiah Okon with his portrait with the title ‘Proudly an African’.


Two artistes tied in the third position in the BIC competition; Moses Ojeleye with his ‘Amaka’ portrait, and Dumbor Debeeh who submitted a portrait titled ‘Echoes of joy’.

The following were the Art Master Africa national winners from across Africa;

• Nigeria: ‘Proudly an African’ by Hezekiah Okon

• Uganda: ‘Celebrating Africa in Harmony with Wildlife’ by artist Maiku Fred

• Kenya: ‘African Culture’ portrait by Griffin Lundi

• South Africa: ‘Imwe hamwe na Kamere’ (One with Nature) by Romeon Mwiseneza

• Morocco: ‘Mother Africa’ by Essadik Laila

• Tunisia: Africa with my pen by Mouhamed Boudhri

The Art Master Africa competition winner got a cash prize of USD2,000, while second and third position winners took home USD1,000 and USD500 respectively.

The six national winners got cash prizes of USD500 each accompanied by BIC hampers.

Kenyan winner, Griffin Lundi, was awarded on November 10, 2022 at the BIC Headquarters in Kasarani in an event hosted live on BIC's Facebook Page, BIC Kenya, by comedian Timothy Kimani alias Njugush.

“In its fifth edition, Art Master Africa continues to shine a light on ballpoint pen artists as they express themselves through creativity,” said Peter Van den Broeck, BIC Senior Vice President and General Manager, Middle East and Africa.

He added: “Our flagship competition has seen tremendous growth year-on-year with higher participation numbers. We are proud of the results we have seen to date and are confident that we will continue to encourage African youth to express themselves through art and creativity.”

The Art Master Africa competition is an annual competition that invites artists to creatively develop art pieces using the iconic BIC Ball Pen and was launched in South Africa in 2017 before expanding to other parts of Africa in 2019 and later into the Middle East in 2021.

BIC has a number of established partnerships with art institutes from countries across the world and has its products displayed in a number of renowned museums around the world.