Roaring To Life: Growth and Innovation in African Retail Banking

PRESS RELEASE

Roaring To Life: Growth and Innovation in African Retail Banking

The McKinsey Global Banking report finds winning strategies among Africa’s top banks

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, February 28, 2018/ -- The McKinsey Global Banking (www.McKinsey.com) practice has today published a new report on African Retail Banking - Roaring to life: Growth and innovation in African retail banking (https://goo.gl/grn5ju).

Africa: Orange and OpenClassrooms Have Combined Forces to Train Young Africans in Digital Technology

PRESS RELEASE

Orange and OpenClassrooms have combined forces to train young Africans in digital technology

Digital training centres will be established based on the OpenClassrooms diploma with “Guaranteed employment” commitment, with the help of local partners

PARIS, France, February 23, 2018/ -- Orange (www.Orange.com) and OpenClassrooms (https://OpenClassrooms.com) are pleased to announce the signing of a broad-based partnership to provide digital training in Africa. Several Orange subsidiaries in Africa are already working on the launch of training centres providing online courses via OpenClassrooms.

To rise to the challenge of the digital revolution in Africa, students and teachers alike need to be trained in the new technology. There are two objectives for countries in Africa: to use digital technology to boost growth, and to focus on new sectors of business that create jobs. In both cases, it is essential to train young Africans to ensure the economic development of the continent in the decades to come and avoid the brain drain of strategic skills for its development. By 2050, the African population will double to reach 2.5 billion, half of whom will be under the age of 25, according to estimates by the UN. Investing in education, in particular e-education, is an absolute priority to overcome the lack of physical and technical infrastructure.

From Wole Soyinka to Orikinla

Seven years ago, in February 2011, the greatest black writer and the "Lion of African Literature", Prof. Wole Soyinka, the first black person to win the Nobel Prize for Literature sent me the following letter by email in reply to an email I sent to him. It is one of my most treasured possessions, including a thank you note from the great Tai Solarin and emails from Hans Jürgen Pohland, the great German filmmaker and director of Francis Oladele's film adaptation of two classic novels of the great Chinua Achebe; "Things Fall Apart" and "No Longer At Ease" starring Princess Elizabeth of Toro, Orlando Martins and Johnny Sekka.

Dear 'Orikinla',
Quickly to thank you for news of yourself and your literary achievement. I shall now look out for your books to add to my reading list. Unfortunately however, owing to the frequency of such requests, I found myself obliged, albeit reluctantly, to routinely decline writing forewords and blurbs to new works. The minuscule exceptions have been in truly exceptional circumstances.
I hope you do understand, and will kindly accept my excuses.
With sincere warm wishes to you and your writing,
Wole Soyinka

The book I wanted him to write the foreword, "In the House of Dogs" is distributed by Amazon and displayed on my https://www.amazon.com/author/ekenyerengozimichaelchima.

Searching for Boko Haram by Prof. Scott MacEachern

 The new book, Searching for Boko Haram by Scott MacEachern is a must read.

For the past decade, Boko Haram has relentlessly terrorized northeastern Nigeria. Few if any explanations for the rise of this violent insurgent group look beyond its roots in worldwide jihadism and recent political conflicts in central Africa. Searching for Boko Haram is the first book to examine the insurgency within the context of centuries, millennia even, of cultural change in the region. The book surveys the deep history of the lands south of Lake Chad, richly documented in archaeology and texts, to show how ancient natural and cultural events can aid in our understanding of Boko Haram's present agenda.

How Blockchain Will Change the World By 2020

How Blockchain Will Change the World By 2020

If you don't know what is #Blockchain, you better  do so now!

#Blockchain will make many bank jobs useless by 2020.
Many workers in banks will become redundant.
They either reinvent or become extinct.

~ Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima, CEO, International Digital Post Network Limited

Blockchain banks will replace ordinary banks.

About 80% of banks are developing their own blockchain technology.
In September 2016, Barclays carried out the world’s first trade transaction using blockchain.
They cut a process that normally takes 7–10 days down to less than four hours.
Thought Machine has already created a “blockchain bank.”

The real value of blockchain is that it renders intermediaries obsolete. They make a living off being a third party that establishes “trust” between parties unknown to each other. Blockchain replaces these middlemen.
Dubai’s government said it plans to shift all transactions to blockchain by 2020.

Voting in Elections
In future elections, votes could be cast through a blockchain. Blockchain’s audit trail would authenticate voters’ identity and keep track of votes while allowing anyone to verify no votes were altered.
This would make fraud virtually impossible and ensure there is no question of electoral foul play.

Music  Streaming
Music streaming is great—well, maybe not for the musicians. It’s estimated that artists lose up to 86% of the proceeds from their music because of illegal downloading. Blockchain is making it possible for artists to earn royalties on their music without going through a record label.
Grammy-winning artist Imogen Heap has created a blockchain-based streaming platform called MYCELIA that is facilitating this.

Click here to read the report.

Ethereum Mining Guide for 2018

What is #Ethereum Mining?

Mining Ethereum is sorting through data blocks from peer distributed cryptocurrency networks to find information that can be used to solve challenging math problems. Successful Ethereum miners can earn crypotocurrency in in exchange for their work.

Ethereum mining requires a lot of intensive computation work, time and lots of processing power. Ethereum is a platform with several applications that are helpful for users trying to do a variety of everyday tasks very simply. Results generated through digital mining is referred to as proof of work system.

The process of getting cryptocurrency tokens of Ethereum from blockchain networks requires having computers programmed to run a hashing algorithm non-stop. The hashing algorithm condenses a large amount of information into fixed length string of numbers and letters. Ethash, the hashing algorithm employed by Ethereum, hashes metadata drawn from the most recently available using a nonce. This binary number is able to create a unique hash value.

With every new block contained in the blockchain, a new target hash value is set by the network. All miners on that network attempt to guess which nonce will result in the desired value. The miner that discovers the right nonce is awarded the block and receives 5 ether. The process begins again following a cycle which occurs about every 12 seconds.


Ethereum Mining Rigs: Dedicated machines can mine ethereum much faster than average computers, but you’ll need a little bit of help building an efficient mining workhorse like this one.

Ethereum Mining How To Guide

For people interested in doing this type of mining, it is important to get an Ethereum mining how to guide that will walk through every possible step, explain the process in detail and make you aware of any tools and training you will need beyond the scope of this article which provides the high level methods you can use to mine ethereum and the pros and cons of each. A how to guide can also help you master the skills you will need to get good results consistently. With the right mining how to guide and some practice, it is possible to gather the information you need to solve even the most complex mathematical problems and be able use mining applications with your existing computer hardware.

Ethereum Mining Guide: 2018 Edition - Strategic Coin

Click here for the complete Ethereum Mining Guide.

Bitcoin Price Increases to Above $10,000

Bitcoin Price Increases to Above $10,000FinancialBuzz.com News Commentary

NEW YORK, February 16, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
Bitcoin price rose above $10,000 on Thursday for the first time in two weeks. According to CoinMarketCap, the price of bitcoin jumped 7.78 percent to $10,050.40. The world's largest cryptocurrency by market cap now rebounded more than 60 percent from its low of about $6,141 hit last Tuesday. Increasing adoption of cryptocurrency drives the growth of the market. Coinbase, the leading U.S. cryptocurrency trading platform, announced the launch of Coinbase Commerce, a new service that allows merchants to accept digital currencies such as Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum and Litecoin. DMG Blockchain Solutions Inc. (TSX-V: DMGI), International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM), Chinanet Online Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: CNET), Long Blockchain Corp (NASDAQ: LBCC), Bitcoin Investment Trust (OTC: GBTC)

On Wednesday, the price of Litecoin surged over 30 percent on the news that a payment system for Litecoin is set to launch on February 26th. The new payments processor, which is called LitePay, will allow businesses to accept Litecoin payments. The upcoming hard fork for Litecoin also boosts the demand of the digital currency. Litecoin's first hard fork is expected to take place on February 18th. According to CoinMarketCap, Litecoin is the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, with a market value of $11.8 billion. According to CNBC, Iqbal Gandham, U.K. managing director at eToro, said: "With the fork in Litecoin cash it seems to help miners use their equipment more efficiently."

Click here to read more.

The global cryptocurrency mining market is expected to reach US $38.38 billion by 2025 Click here to read the news report.

Nollycoin, First Cryptocurrency for Nollywood

Dr. Ope Banwo's "Nollycoin" is the first #cryptocurrency in the Nigerian entertainment industry. But 99.99% of people in #Nollywood are clueless about what is an ICO; not to mention ETH.
If JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon has declared Bitcoin to be “a fraud”, then what will the world say of a cryptocurrency for the film industry of a country that the apex bank has declared cryptocurrencies as illegal in Nigerian business transactions?

The Unacceptable Ignorance of Corporate Nigeria on the Emergency of Millions of Poor Girls Out of School

I am still baffled that if I don't initiate and organize the annual United Nations' International Day of the Girl Child in Nigeria, no one else does so.
It is baffling to see the unacceptable ignorance of Corporate Nigeria on the humanitarian emergency of the over 5 million underprivileged girls out of school in Nigeria.

Millions of girls of today become mothers tomorrow before the boys even become men, because of the widespread cases of girl child marriages and teenage pregnancies.

Uneducated girls are the most deprived and most vulnerable humans on earth.
Underprivileged girls out of school are the most Disadvantaged girls in the world.

Innovation and Consolidation To Drive African Telecom, Media and Tech Deals, Says Standard Bank

PRESS RELEASE

Innovation and Consolidation To Drive African Telecom, Media and Tech Deals, Says Standard Bank

Improving economic growth and investment in technology and broadband to fuel growth in Africa’s telecom media and tech sector

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, February 12, 2018/ -- The global head of TMT (www.TMTfinance.com/capetown) for Africa’s largest bank, Standard Bank (www.StandardBank.com), is predicting continuing deal flow and increasing investment in Africa’s flourishing telecom, media and technology sector in 2018, against a backdrop of improving economic growth and increasingly stable currency outlook across key markets such as Nigeria.

The Phenomenon of Nollywood in Film Studies

The sociocultural phenomenon of Nollywood, the video film industry in Nigeria known for guerrilla filmmaking has attracted foreign journalists, film scholars and students even before the coinage of the name "Nollywood" by the New York Times in 2002.

Nollywood rebranded the global image of Nigeria by showing the amazing creativity and ingenuity of Nigerians who started the first revolution in independent filmmaking in Africa with no-budget or Bootstrap budget home videos of Nigerian drama.
The first home video hit movie, "Living in Bondage" that was released in 1992 has been erroneously called the inaugural Nollywood movie by many foreign journalists and scholars who did not do enough research before publishing their reports and were ignorant of the home videos of Yoruba and Hausa producers .
Following the success of "Living in Bondage",  the National Film and Video Censors Board was set up by Act No.85 of 1993 to regulate the production of the home videos.

Restructuring: Jonathan, Governor Dickson and Top Ijaw Leaders Call for Sincere Implementation of APC Report

Governor of Bayelsa State, Hon. Seriake Dickson (right) explains a point to former President Goodluck Jonathan (left) during a high level consultative meeting of Ijaw leaders in Yenagoa. Photo by Lucky Francis (PRNewsfoto/The Governor's ...

LAGOS, Nigeria, February 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Restructuring: Jonathan, Governor Dickson and Top Ijaw Leaders Call for Sincere Implementation of APC Report

The Governor of Bayelsa State, Honourable Henry Seriake Dickson, on Thursday led a high powered delegation of Ijaw leaders to former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan  to deliberate on the All Progressives Congress Committee's report on Restructuring.
 
Jonathan, the Governor and the top Ijaw leaders called on President Muhammadu Buhari and the leadership of the All Progressives Congress to be sincere with the implementation of the recommendations of the party's committee led by Governor Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna State.

Taking Nollywood To 24 Million Blockchain Wallet Users

Taking Nollywood To 24 Million Blockchain Wallet Users

On Friday, February 2, 2018, I honoured the important invitation of the Nollywood Studies Centre of the School of Media and Communication at the Pan-Atlantic University (PAU) in Ibeju Lekki, Lagos state. We want #Nollywood to benefit from the great opportunities in #blockchain film distribution in the global film industry.

I met with Mrs. Chioma Anokwuru. Manager, Nollywood Studies Centre and her colleagues, Mrs. Temitope Falade, Cpmmunications Manager, Mr. Kenneth Esere, Director, SMC Media and Mr. San Igbedion, Media Production Officer. And later I met Dr. Ikechukwu Obiaya, Dean of the School of Media and Communication.