The Ghanaian duo of Michael Essien and Adjoa Bayor would on Thursday join the continents nominees at the African Football Awards night in Nigeria.

The annual Confederation of African Football (Caf) awards ceremony originally fixed for 9 January was following a request from the organisers of the event, Globacom Limited.

The telephone company that sponsors the ceremony said they could not guarantee the presence of most of the top nominees for the various categories of awards.

Ghana’s Michael Essien and his Chelsea teammate Didier Drogba of Ivory Coast are in the running for last year's Caf African Footballer of the Year with Cameroon's Samuel Eto'o, who has won the individual award in the past two years.

Also in the reckoning for an award is Black Queens striker, Adjoa Bayor, who is gunning for her second Female Player of the Year.

The awards ceremony comes just six days after African Nations Cup hosted by Egypt.