Aiteo Founder, Benedict Peters Wins Forbes Oil & Gas Leader of the Year Award, 2018

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Aiteo Founder, Benedict Peters Wins Forbes Oil & Gas Leader of the Year Award, 2018

NEW YORK, USA, September 30, 2018/ - International business leader and founder of Aiteo Group (www.Aiteogroup.com), Benedict Peters was awarded Africa’s Oil and Gas Leader of the Year at the Forbes Best of Africa Gala which held at Forbes Headquarters, New York City on September 27, 2018.

Mr. Benedict Peters.

The award is an acknowledgement of Peters’ significant contribution to oil and gas development in Africa by visionary leadership, distinguished service and transformational realignment of a sector dominated by International Oil Companies. The Forbes Award also recognised Mr. Peters’ commitment to bettering the lives of people and societies across Africa by philanthropic engagement.

United Nations' International Day of the Girl 2018: Hussaina and Hafsatu

Hussaina Musa, a 13-year old is one of the over 130 million girls out of school in the world. Hussaina like many girls in northern nigeria in her shoes, dropped out of school not because she wants to get married but simply due to cost her widowed mother could not bear.
Hussaina’s mum, now 28 year old married since she was 15 in Sabon Gayan, a community in Kaduna State. She gave birth to 6 children including Hussaina, before death snatched her husband. And this was when Hussaina’s travails began.
“I left school not quite long because I could not afford the expenses it involved any further. I was in primary 3 when I stopped going to school” in the words of Hussaina, who is ambitious to return to the classroom and learn.

- Development Post

A teacher helps Hafsatu, 13, at a UNICEF-supported school in the northern state of Bauchi, Nigeria. Photo:UNICEF.

Nigeria already has 10 million children out of school—the highest number in the world. Almost one of three primary age children is not enrolled and one in four secondary-school age children. In many states, girls are twice as likely to be out of school as boys. In some parts of Nigeria, only five percent of the poorest young women are literate. Given these challenges, it is "especially abhorrent" that the girls were abducted to prevent them from attending school.

~ UNICEF

African Development Bank Seeks Partnerships To Lift 1 Billion People Out of Hunger Globally

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African Development Bank Seeks Partnerships To Lift 1 Billion People Out of Hunger Globally

“We must not get carried away: we are not winning the war against global hunger”

INDIANAPOLIS, United States of America, September 26, 2018/ -- The African Development Bank (www.AfDB.org) called on global partners to join hands to lift one billion people worldwide out of hunger and said it was leading the way by investing US$24 billion in African agriculture over the next 10 years in the largest such effort ever.

African Development Bank Boosts Jobs for Youth in Africa Strategy with Close to $2 Million

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African Development Bank Boosts Jobs for Youth in Africa Strategy with Close to $2 Million

Fund for African Private Sector Assistance (FAPA), of which the Government of Japan is a major donor, along with the Austrian Government and the African Development Bank, will contribute $923,570 and $988,202 to finance the Bank’s Fashionomics Africa Digital Marketplace and Entrepreneurship & Innovation Lab (eLab) programs

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast, September 25, 2018/ -- The African Development Bank’s (www.AfDB.org) Fund for African Private Sector Assistance (FAPA) (http://bit.ly/2xAJfTU), has provided funds totaling nearly US $2 million to its Jobs for Youth in Africa initiative.

FAPA, of which the Government of Japan is a major donor, along with the Austrian Government and the African Development Bank, will contribute $923,570 and $988,202 to finance the Bank’s Fashionomics Africa Digital Marketplace and Entrepreneurship & Innovation Lab (eLab) programs, respectively. Both programs form key components of the Bank’s Jobs for Youth in Africa Strategy, which invests in high-growth sectors with potential to promote youth and women’s empowerment, as well as create 25 million jobs over the next decade.

#OsunDecides2018: The Evil Lies of PDP Exposed!

Re: PDP Heads To Court Over Osun Governorship Election by donphilopus: 7:14pm On Sep 24

During the Kogi 2015 guber poll, the late Abubabakar Audu was leading the then incumbent, Idris Wada (of PDP) with a margin of about 43k and the election was declared inconclusive because some polling units with about 49k voting strength had their votes cancelled. PDP celebrated the declaration because they knew if they had declared Audu the winner, automatically, Faleke would have been sworn in as the governor after the death of Audu. Now, same thing has happened in Osun and they are already crying foul.

The rerun would be conducted in Osun come Thursday and APC candidate would emerge the winner and heaven would not fall!

Immigration Minister Strengthens Cooperation with Nigeria on Modern Slavery

Immigration Minister Strengthens Cooperation with Nigeria on Modern Slavery

LONDON, 21 September 2018 / PRN Africa / --Minister for Immigration, Caroline Nokes, has travelled to Nigeria to visit the new Joint Border Task Force buildings in Lagos.

The Minister for Immigration, Caroline Nokes, has travelled to Nigeria to further strengthen the UK's efforts to tackle human trafficking and modern slavery. This visit follows Prime Minister Theresa May's visit to the country last month, where she unveiled a range of support to cut illegal and unsafe migration into Europe from West Africa.

Nigeria is the fifth-largest country of origin for victims of modern slavery in Britain. This abhorrent crime sees men, women and children ensnared by traffickers and brought to Europe, denied their liberty and forced into work, prostitution or criminal activity.

The Untold Stories of the Hausa Igbos and Igbo Hausas

It is @Orikinla Again!
The Scarlet Pimpernel of Nigeria.
Acting as an Hausa gentle Mallam wearing the Hausa cap I bought in Abuja. It is better than the ones I wanted to buy in Lagos months ago.

Britons, Brazilians, Americans and Hungarians Are More Pessimistic than Nigerians and other Africans

People in Peaceful Countries More Pessimistic About Peace Prospects Than Those in Conflict Zones, says New Poll by International Alert and the British Council

LONDON, September 19, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- People in more peaceful countries are more pessimistic about prospects for peace than those in conflict environments, according to a survey of 15 countries commissioned by International Alert and the British Council.  

The Peace Perceptions Poll 2018, conducted in partnership with global polling agency RIWI, asked people around the world about their perceptions of peace and conflict.

African Agric Ministers, Private and Public Sector Leaders Push for More Investment, Less Talk

African Agric Ministers, Private and Public Sector Leaders Push for More Investment, Less Talk

 ABIDJAN, Côte d'Ivoire, 14 September 2018 / PRN Africa / -- Several African agriculture ministers joined public and private sector representatives calling for more investment in agriculture at a Leadership4Agriculture event held at the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) in Kigali, Rwanda.

Organized by the African Development Bank, the Leadership4Agriculture session facilitated partnerships between policy makers, private investors, institutions and offered participants opportunity to learn more about the Leadership4Agriculture network's agenda to drive action-oriented, growth enabling investments.

Lagos To Host Biannual Africa Fintech Summit for the First Time in November

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Lagos To Host Biannual Africa Fintech Summit for the First Time in November

The Summit, organized by Dedalus Global, gathers innovators, investors, policy makers and other key stakeholders in the Fintech sector to discuss technologies transforming finance on the continent, debate regulatory policies, compare best practices, and forge new ventures

LAGOS, Nigeria, September 17, 2018/ -- Africa’s premier fintech event, the Africa Fintech Summit, (www.AfricaFintechSummit.com) will be held for the first time in Lagos, Nigeria, on November 8-9, 2018. This event comes on the heels of the earlier edition in Washington D.C. which featured leading policy makers, c-suite business executives, start-ups, and investors.

Scene from AFTS Washington, at the National Press Club (Source: Dedalus Global.)

Olanrewaju Osibona, Senior Special Advisor to the President of Nigeria on ICT, speaking at the AFTS Washington (Source: Dedalus Global.)

The Summit, organized by Dedalus Global, gathers innovators, investors, policy makers and other key stakeholders in the Fintech sector to discuss technologies transforming finance on the continent, debate regulatory policies, compare best practices, and forge new ventures.

Full Text of Kemi Adeosun's Letter of Resignation

The following is the full text of the letter of resignation of Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, the former Minister of Finance of Nigeria and former Chairman of the Board of African Export–Import Bank (AfreximBank).

His Excellency
Muhammadu Buhari
President, Federal Republic of Nigeria
State House
Aso Villa
Abuja

Dear Excellency,

Let me commence by thanking you profusely for the honour and privilege of serving under your inspirational leadership. It has been a truly rewarding experience to learn from you and to observe at close quarters your integrity and sense of duty.

I have, today, become privy to the findings of the investigation into the allegation made in an online medium that the Certificate of Exemption from National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) that I had presented was not genuine. This has come as a shock to me and I believe that in line with this administration’s focus on integrity, I must do the honourable thing and resign.

Nigeria Must Step Up Efforts To Prevent Trafficking and Reintegrate Victims - UN Expert

Nigeria Must Step Up Efforts To Prevent Trafficking and Reintegrate Victims - UN Expert

GENEVA, 10 September 2018 / PRN Africa / -- Nigeria must step up efforts to eradicate human trafficking and ensure that existing legal and institutional measures to protect individuals from human trafficking are adequately implemented, says a UN human rights expert.

No Country is Immune from Corruption - Ambassador Karen Pierce

Corruption and Conflict: An Insidious Plague

LONDON, 10 September 2018 / PRN Africa / -- Statement by Ambassador Karen Pierce, UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations at Security Council briefing on corruption and conflict

Thank you very much indeed Madam President and thank you for putting this very important issue on the Council's agenda today.

Thank you to the Secretary-General for those insightful words and also to Mr Prendergast. I was very interested in what you had to say about the three things that primarily need tackling and about sanctions having to be extended to networks and about system change. I hope that we will, as the Council considers some of the issues before it, I hope that we will be able to follow some of your prescriptions and debate how more productively we can actually tackle corruption.

Exceptional South African Women Win Top Prizes in Pan-African Absa L’Atelier Art Awards

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Exceptional South African Women Win Top Prizes in Pan-African Absa L’Atelier Art Awards

The Absa L’Atelier awards has become a touchstone for the concerns consuming young people on the continent

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, September 13, 2018/ -- Marguerite Kirsten, a fine artist from Cape Town, fought off stiff competition from visual artists from across Africa to take top honours in the 2018 Absa L’Atelier awards (www.Absa.africa). Her compatriot, Philiswa Lila, a fine artist and scholar from the Eastern Cape (based in Gauteng) walked away with this year’s Gerard Sekoto Award.

Winner and work

(Source: Absa Group Limited.)

Winner work

(Source: Absa Group Limited.)

Henry Obeng (Ghana), Absa L’Atelier Second Merit Award Winner

(Source: Absa Group Limited.)

Kirsten won the overall Absa L’Atelier Award for her installation Embodiment. Having grown up, and continuing to live, with various medical conditions, Kirsten feels her body has become an instrument of the medical fraternity. This work, comprising various fluids that represent the ephemeral nature of her body, sought to strengthen and dignify the artist’s physical body in the face of this perceived objectification.

44% of Millennials Have Deleted the Facebook App from Their Mobile Devices

Millennials and Small Biz Exiting Facebook in Droves.

Two separate articles here, same phenomenon: Facebook is facing headwinds. Maybe it started with the Cambridge Analytica scandal, or maybe people are just realizing independently that it’s an asymmetric relationship. A PEW research poll showed that a staggering 44% of millennials, people under the age of 30, have deleted the Facebook app from their mobile device, something we recommended everybody do several weeks ago. For millennials the effect must be compounded because for people under 30, mobile is mostly it. Desktops are in the same bucket as rotary telephones for those guys.

The other demographic that is turning away from Facebook are small businesses, who find themselves at the mercy of Facebook’s arbitrary changes to feeds impacting their reach, and it's costing them real money. Why spend the time building up a Facebook following when Zuck can take it away on a whim? (Or Jack over at Twitter for that matter). That’s why it’s best to have all roads lead back to your own website on your own domain.

Read: https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/facebook-social-media-pew-research-center-survey/2018/09/05/id/880442/
And: https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/goodbye-facebook-why-some-small-businesses-are-quitting-social-network-n905171.

New UK-Funded Agricultural Initiative To Tackle Food Security and Rural Poverty in the Niger Delta

Tackling food security and farmer poverty in Nigeria. New pilot project is explained by Cletus Ilugo of the UK government-backed Stakeholder Democracy Network and Alluvial Agriculture's Managing Director Von Kemedi.

In a new initiative, SDN is focusing on the Niger Delta in partnership with Alluvial Agriculture, a collective farming business that targets including as many as 100,000 smallholders on farms spanning 463 square miles. Alluvial is tackling systemic problems that leave most African smallholders in poverty and threaten food security across the developing world by aggregating farmers to create a nucleus of minimum efficient scale and the necessary education, mechanization, inputs and market access. Tata Group is helping Alluvial provide up to 300 tractors that, for 20 minutes per plot, will save farmers many days or weeks of toiling by hand.

Nigeria: What Everyone Needs to Know

Nigeria: What Everyone Needs to Know

As the "Giant of Africa" Nigeria is home to about twenty percent of the population of Sub-Saharan Africa, serves as Africa's largest producer of oil and natural gas, comprises Africa's largest economy, and represents the cultural center of African literature, film, and music. Yet the country is plagued by problems that keep it from realizing its potential as a world power. Boko Haram, a radical Islamist insurrection centered in the northeast of the country, is an ongoing security challenge, as is the continuous unrest in the Niger Delta, the heartland of Nigeria's petroleum wealth. There is also persistent violence associated with land and water use, ethnicity, and religion.

Ecobank Announce Winners of 2018 Fintech Challenge

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Ecobank Announce Winners of 2018 Fintech Challenge

This year’s Fintech Challenge was keenly contested with applications from over 412 innovative fintech entrepreneurs from across Africa, Europe, North America and Asia

LOME, Togo, September 7, 2018/ -- Nala, Virtual Identity and Wallet.ng dazzle judging panel to be the three winners of the competition; All 11 finalists were officially inducted into the Ecobank Fintech Fellowship programme to explore commercial partnerships with the pan-African banking giant.

MIT Announces 2018 MIT Inclusive Innovation Challenge Africa Winners

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MIT Announces 2018 MIT Inclusive Innovation Challenge Africa Winners

The Four Regional Winners Now Proceed to the Global Tournament at MIT on November 8 to vie for $1,000,000 USD

CAMBRIDGE, United States of America, September 7, 2018/ -- The MIT Initiative (www.MITInclusiveInnovation.com) on the Digital Economy has announced the four regional winners for their 2018 global economic prize, the MIT Inclusive Innovation Challenge (IIC) (www.MITInclusiveInnovation.com) in Africa. The winning organizations were selected from 9 IIC finalists (www.MITInclusiveInnovation.com/regions/africa/) and from 10 Zambezi Prize for Innovation in Financial Inclusion finalists (http://Zambezi.MIT.edu/) at a summit and celebration in Nairobi, Kenya on August 29. The celebration was held in conjunction with the MIT IIC Africa collaborator, the MIT Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship (www.Legatum.com), who organizes the Zambezi Prize in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation (https://MastercardFdn.org/).

Ijeoma Onah: The Most Influential and Powerful Woman in the African Film and TV industry

The most influential and powerful woman in the African film and television industry is Ms. Ijeoma Onah, a dynamic and highly resourceful young Nigerian entrepreneur and investor who is determined to break new grounds for Nollywood and Kannywood in the global entertainment industry.

UN Human Rights Expert To Assess Trafficking in Persons in Nigeria

UN Human Rights Expert To Assess Trafficking in Persons in Nigeria

GENEVA, 31 August 2018 / PRN Africa / -- UN Special Rapporteur Maria Grazia Giammarinaro will assess the issue of trafficking in persons in Nigeria, during an official visit to the country from 3-10 September.

“My visit is an opportunity to meet with relevant stakeholders to discuss various forms and manifestations of trafficking in persons and key human rights concerns and challenges, as well as progress made, in addressing trafficking in persons for the purpose of sexual, labour or any other form of exploitation,” Ms Giammarinaro said.

Dangote Now the Most Valuable Brand in Nigeria

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Top 50 Brands: Dangote Now the Most Valuable Brand in Nigeria

The Brand Africa 100 ranking is based on a survey among consumers 18 years and older, conducted in 23 countries across Africa

LAGOS, Nigeria, September 3, 2018/ -- Nigeria’s Dangote (www.Dangote.com) has emerged the most valuable brand among the top 50 brands in Nigeria for 2018 which were unveiled at the weekend in Lagos.

This is coming barely three months after the brand was adjudged the most admired brand of African origin by Consumers in a brand rating coordinated by South Africa based Brand Leadership in conjunction with Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).

"18 Hours" Wins Overall Best Movie of 2018 AMVCA

"18 Hours", the directorial debut of Kenyan filmmaker, Njue Kevin won the Overall Best Movie Award at the 2018 annual Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards (AMVCA) held on Saturday, September 1, 2018, at the Eko Hotel & Suites on Victoria Island in Lagos city, the entertainment capital of Africa.

"18 HOURS" follows a rookie paramedic who spends 18 hours in an ambulance for the life of a road crash victim who struggles to be admitted to any hospital.
Cast: Nick Ndeda, Sue Wanjiru, Brian Ogola Director: Njue Kevin
Screenplay: Njue Kevin
Producers: Ruguru Phoebe, Afwani Bill.

Ruguru Phoebe with the AMVCA prize.

Click here to read more with photographs.