Reigning Miss Africa Zimbabwe, Ayanda Candice Sibanda (22) is honoured to be representing the country at the Miss Africa Queen finals in Calabar, Nigeria.
The model left Zimbabwe on December 16 for Nigeria where she will be competing against 20 other African countries' representatives.
The Miss Africa pageant finale will take place on December 27, running under the theme Agro-Industrialisation.
Sibanda shrugged off stiff competition from other beauties in the national finals held at the Hundah Group followed by a public vote.
Speaking to Standard style while at a boot camp in Calabar, the multi-talented and award-winning model said she was learning a lot although the atmosphere was currently a bit tense.
"I am learning a lot being in this boot camp even though it gets a little bit hard at times. I have learnt to stay on course, no matter how hard it gets, I am always reminded of why I came here," she said.
Miss Africa is an environmental pageant that advocates for environmental protection and conservation as well as an eco-friendly lifestyle and it seeks to crown a queen who can challenge leaders to focus more on effective agricultural production and agro-industrialisation.
"I think Africa is the capital of agriculture and it’s time women become the drivers of that change. Women can be drivers of this change by being given the opportunity to execute their ideas and become part and parcel of decision making," said Sibanda.
"The first step to deal with climate change is to come up with better policies to help protect our environment so we slow down the process of climate degradation."
Ayanda Candice Sibanda is a final year law student at the University of Zimbabwe and hopes to learn a lot from this experience as well as represent her country to her utmost ability.
"It’s amazing to have such an honour to represent my country as this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I am just living in the moment and taking everything in," she said.
"This platform has opened a lot of opportunities for me as I had the privilege to work with Zimbabwean brands and I am looking forward to broadening the platform."