A new season of the model talent search for Nokia Face of Africa 2005 is presented by pan-African broadcaster M-Net. The participants of Africa’s premier modeling contest, sponsored by leading international mobile phone company Nokia, will represent 21 African countries: Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

After receiving all the entries, the scouting team will curtail the list to just 12 countries. Then it will travel to those countries to choose 16 semi-finalists, who will be to attend a special training camp. By the end of the training process, 10 Finalists will be identified and will participate in the Nokia Face of Africa 2005 Final, which is scheduled to take place in mid-July 2005 in Johannesburg and be broadcasted by M-Net to over 42 countries on the continent.

The contestants must be between the ages of 17 and 24 (as of June 1, 2004); be at least 1.72m tall and have a maximum hip measurement of 36cm. The modeling agency, also supporting this season of Nokia Face of Africa, is the Storm Model Agency. The winner will sign a US$ 125,000 contract over a three-year period with Storm Models and get an opportunity to become one of Africa’s most famous female faces.

Face of Africa is a continental model talent search that first was held in 1998. The First winner was Nigerian schoolgirl Oluchi Onweagba who had rapidly become a habitue of the world’s catwalks. The project was run for four years until 2001 and now is making it back with the Nokia Face of Africa 2005. The other winners included: Benvinda Mudenge from Namibia (1999); Nombulelo Mazibuko from South Africa (2000) and Ramatoulaye Diallo from Senegal (2001).