The AFRIMA annual adjudication calendar commences with the Call for Entry process where Artistes, Songwriters, Video Directors, Music Producers, Disc-Jockeys (DeeJays) and Choreographers/Dancers on the African continent and in the Diaspora are required to submit their works within the stipulated validity timeline and this occurs over a period of 12 weeks.

After the Entry Submission period closes, the Screening Committee of AFRIMA meets to sieve through the thousands of works received via the AFRIMA website to verify each entry adheres to the submission guidelines and requirements.

Afterwards, the 13-man International Jury of AFRIMA meets for 12 days (based on dates on the annual AFRIMA calendar) to review, assess and grade the pre-screened entries submitted by African artistes. During this painstaking and careful process, the Jury is bond by the AFRIMA Values of FACE IT –Fairness, Authenticity, Creativity, Excellence, Integrity and Transparency in arriving at the final Nominees List for the year of the awards.

The 13-man Jury is structured into two representatives from each region of Africa. Then, there are two other Jurors each one representing Africa in the diaspora –Europe and North America; another Juror representing the African Union and the final Juror representing the International Committee of AFRIMA.

The Annual AFRIMA Nominees List is eventually released to the public after the Jury Adjudication process has been concluded.

Award winners in the 39 categories emerge through a voting process that occurs via the AFRIMA International Voting Academy and the African Public.

Besides the 13-man Jury panel, the AFRIMA International Voting Academy is also made up of the 100-man College of Voters which consists of experienced African music professionals, scholars, DJays, VJays and renowned music enthusiasts who will cast their votes for nominees based on the technical/production quality, originality/creativity and artistic merits of the works. Academy Voting and Public Voting is done strictly online on www.afrima.org

The International Committee of AFRIMA and the College of Voters exclusively decide two categories of the awards, the AFRIMA Legend Award and the Producer of the Year respectively.

At the conclusion of the Voting Process, AFRIMA International Auditors will collate the votes and present the sealed results to the award producer on the main award ceremony day. The nominee (s) with the highest number of total votes in each category wins the AFRIMA trophy. The integrity of the process is such that the Public and Academy members have no way of knowing how any other person votes.