Competition rules

The rules, in the words we will use.

Read this once before you submit. Everything a checking officer or the Review Panel may hold against your entry is on this page.

Rules version 2.0 Privacy notice version 1.0 The version you accepted is recorded against your account.

Who may enter

Any person aged 16 or over on the closing date, verified against their National Identification Number and a live photograph.
You register with your name, email address, phone number and a password. You then confirm who you are before you can start an entry: your National Identification Number, a bank account in your own name, and a live photograph taken on the spot.
The live photograph is matched against your NIMC record and is what confirms your age. Nothing can be entered until all three have passed.
One account per NIN. A second verification with the same NIN returns you to a sign-in.
Members of the organising Committee, the Review Panel, the checking desk and Ministry officers working on this competition may not enter. Their NINs are on an exclusion list.
You do not need to be resident in Akwa Ibom State, and you do not need to be a professional designer.
Entry is free. No person may charge you any amount to enter, submit, or improve your chances.

Your entries

One entry per designer. Withdrawing it frees your slot, so you may start again while the window is open.
Each entry is judged entirely separately from your others.
You may edit a submitted entry until entries close. Every version is kept, and the latest version is the one judged.
Entries close at 23:59 West Africa Time on 18 September 2026. The deadline is evaluated on the State's own servers; your device clock has no bearing on it.
A draft that has not been submitted when entries close expires and cannot be judged.

Originality and third-party material

The design must be your own original work, created by you.
Every element you did not create yourself must be declared, with its source and licence, in the third-party materials statement.
The design may not incorporate the coat of arms of Akwa Ibom State, the ARISE Agenda mark, or any other mark of the Government of Akwa Ibom State or the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The design may not closely resemble an existing registered trademark or official mark.
Entries are screened for duplicates within this edition, against a reference set of well-known marks, and by reverse image search. Those results are evidence for a human decision — never an automatic rejection.

Use of artificial intelligence

You may use AI tools. Using them does not disqualify your entry.
The AI Use Statement is compulsory. You must either declare that no AI was used, or name each tool, state the stage at which you used it, and describe in at least 20 words what it produced.
The statement cannot be left blank. "No AI used" is an answer; an empty field is not, and the portal will not let you submit one.
Your statement is shown to the Review Panel, with an "AI-assisted (declared)" badge where you have declared use. The panel scores originality and creativity in the knowledge of what you told us.
A statement the evidence does not support is a disqualification, at any stage — including after a prize has been announced.

How entries are judged

Every entry is first checked for eligibility and technical compliance against an eleven-point list. This is not a judgement of quality.
Entries that pass go to the Review Panel anonymised: reference, files, rationale, palette, AI statement. No name, no age, no Local Government Area, no contact details.
Seven panel members score independently against the published rubric. Members cannot see each other's scores.
Where five or more members score an entry, the single highest and single lowest totals are dropped before averaging. The top 10 are shortlisted.
The shortlist is then compared side by side and a final ranking recorded with written citations. The Sponsor approves the result before anything is announced.

Decisions are final

You are told which rule your entry fell on, in plain language, by email and SMS.
While entries are still open, a fixable problem is returned to you for correction rather than failed — so you get the chance to put it right before any decision becomes final.
Every decision in this competition is final. There is no appeal and no reversal: not on eligibility, not on the outcome of the check, not on scoring, not on the shortlist, and not on the final result.
This applies whatever the outcome. Entering the competition means accepting the result as it is recorded.
The help desk can explain a decision and correct a factual error in your own record — a wrong name or a wrong bank detail. It cannot change a decision.

Prizes and copyright

Prizes are paid by the Akwa Ibom State Government, with withholding tax deducted at source, into a bank account in your own name matching your verified NIN name.
You keep the copyright in your design unless you place first.
Whether or not your entry is successful, you hold no right, patent, claim or interest of any kind over any design submitted to this competition, and you may bring no claim against the State, the Ministry or anyone running the competition in respect of any design — including a design resembling your own that is selected or used.
The first-place design assigns to the Government of Akwa Ibom State as a condition of the prize, and you are credited as its designer on festival material, on air and online.
A winner has 30 days to complete their prize claim. After that the prize passes to a reserve.
Two reserves are named. If a winner is found ineligible or does not claim, the next reserve is promoted on the Sponsor's written confirmation.

The scoring rubric, in full

100 points

S1 Theme interpretation

How well the design expresses "Taste of Akwa Ibom: Our Food, Culture and Heritage". Is the connection legible without explanation?

S2 Originality and creativity

Is the idea the entrant's own, and is it fresh? A competent execution of a familiar idea scores lower than a rough execution of an original one.

S3 Technical quality

Construction, balance, colour handling, typography where used. Does it hold together at any size?

S4 Versatility and reproduction

Does it survive one colour, small sizes, embroidery, a billboard and a phone screen?

S5 Cultural authenticity

Does it read as Akwa Ibom to an Akwa Ibom audience, without resorting to cliché?

Every reason an entry can be refused

If your entry is not accepted you are told which of these it fell on, and the wording you receive is the wording below.

Eligibility

Who may enter.

ELIG-01

Under the minimum age at entry

“The competition is open to entrants aged 16 and over on the closing date. Your verified date of birth puts you below that.”

ELIG-02

On the exclusion list

“Members of the organising Committee, the Review Panel and Ministry officers working on this competition may not enter. Please contact the help desk if you believe this is wrong.”

ELIG-03

Identity verification incomplete

“Your identity verification did not complete, so we cannot confirm who submitted this entry. Please contact the help desk.”

Technical

Files and written content. Most of these can be fixed before you submit.

TECH-01

Required file missing

“One or more required files was missing from your entry: the main preview, the vector source, the full-colour PNG and the one-colour PNG are all required.”

TECH-02

File failed safety or type validation

“One of your files could not be accepted for safety reasons — it contained active content, or its contents did not match its file type.”

TECH-03

Vector source is not genuine vector

“The file you supplied as your vector source contains a picture rather than drawn paths. A festival logo has to be redrawn at billboard size, so a true vector file is required.”

TECH-04

Rationale outside word limits

“Your design rationale was outside the 100 to 300 word limit.”

TECH-05

Design does not address the theme

“We could not find a legible connection between your design and this year's theme, "Taste of Akwa Ibom: Our Food, Culture and Heritage".”

TECH-06

Image quality below threshold

“One of your images did not meet the quality gate — resolution, JPEG export quality, colour profile or sharpness. The exact reason is shown against the file on your entry.”

Originality

Decided by a senior officer, never by the checking desk alone.

ORIG-01

Substantially copied from another work

“Your design was found to be substantially copied from an existing work. The competition requires original work that you created yourself.”

ORIG-02

Conflicts with a protected mark

“Your design closely resembles an existing registered trademark or official mark, which the State cannot adopt as a festival logo.”

ORIG-03

Undeclared third-party material

“Your design uses material created by someone else — a font, photograph, icon or illustration — that was not declared in your third-party materials statement.”

ORIG-04

AI Use Statement materially inaccurate

“The evidence does not support your AI Use Statement. Declaring AI use honestly does not disqualify an entry; declaring it inaccurately does.”

Rules

Declarations and prohibited content.

RULE-01

“You did not sign the originality and copyright warranty, which the competition requires before an entry can be judged.”

RULE-02

Uses State or ARISE marks

“Your design incorporates the State coat of arms or the ARISE Agenda mark. Those are the Government's own marks and entrants may not use them in a design.”

RULE-03

Rules version not accepted

“Your entry was submitted without accepting the current competition rules and privacy notice.”

The originality and copyright warranty

You sign this when you submit, by typing your full name. It is reproduced here in full so you can read it before you begin rather than at the end of a long form.

I warrant that the design submitted with this entry is my own original work; that I created it myself; and that it does not copy, adapt or substantially reproduce the work of any other person.

I warrant that I own all rights in the design, or hold a licence sufficient to grant the rights below, and that the design does not infringe the copyright, trademark, design right or other rights of any person.

I confirm that every element of the design not created by me is declared in the third-party materials statement accompanying this entry, together with its source and licence, and that any use of artificial intelligence is declared accurately and in full in the AI Use Statement accompanying this entry.

I confirm that the design does not incorporate the coat of arms of Akwa Ibom State, the ARISE Agenda mark, or any other mark of the Government of Akwa Ibom State or the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

I understand that if my entry is placed first, I will be required to assign the copyright in the design to the Government of Akwa Ibom State as a condition of the prize, and that I will be credited as its designer on festival material.

I understand that a false statement in this warranty may lead to my entry being disqualified at any stage, including after a prize has been announced, and to the recovery of any prize paid.

I agree that, whether or not my entry is successful, I hold no right, patent, claim or interest of any kind over any design submitted to this competition once it has been submitted, and that I will make no claim against the Government of Akwa Ibom State, the Ministry of Science and Digital Economy or any person involved in running this competition in respect of any design, including any design resembling my own that is selected or used.

I understand that every decision in this competition — on eligibility, on the outcome of the check, on scoring, on the shortlist and on the final result — is final, that there is no appeal and no reversal, and that I accept the outcome whatever it is.

I have read the rules — enter How we handle your details →

Rules version 2.0, in force from 11 Sep 2026. Issued by the Ministry of Science and Digital Economy, reference MSDE/ICU4/LOGO/SOP/001.