AFRIFF, One of the Best International Film Festivals in Africa

 

AFRIFF, One of the Best International Film Festivals in Africa

The Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF) is a premier annual event in Lagos, Nigeria, celebrating African and diasporic cinema. Founded in 2010 by Chioma Ude, it hosts high-profile film screenings, industry masterclasses, and talent development programs. It also features the AFRIFF Film & Content Market (AFCM) to boost content licensing, co-productions, and distribution.

The Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF), in partnership with The Walt Disney Company and FilmOne Entertainment, hosted the historic African premiere of "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" in Lagos, Nigeria. The highly anticipated Marvel Studios sequel debuted on the continent ahead of its global cinematic release in November 2022.

The star-studded event brought the film's cast, filmmakers, and global industry stakeholders to Lagos. It was widely celebrated as a monumental milestone for African entertainment, helping bridge the gap between global film industries.

In 2026, AFRIFF became the first African film festival selected for the Goes To Cannes of the Marché du Film (Cannes Film Market) program of the annual Cannes Film Festival in France.

Curating a dedicated "Goes to Cannes" showcase, the festival highlighted the growing global influence of African cinema.

As the official representative for Lagos, Nigeria, AFRIFF secured a highly visible platform at the Palais des Festivals.

Key Information and Upcoming Dates

Event Dates: 

The festival typically takes place in early November.

Location: 

Lagos, Nigeria (with multiple venues across the city).

Core Activities:

Film Screenings: Showcasing feature films, documentaries, shorts, animations, and student works.

AFRIFF Globe Awards: 

The closing-week ceremony honoring artistic excellence across various cinematic categories.

AFRIFF Academy: 

A capacity-building initiative that trains young filmmakers and facilitates sponsorships to international film schools.

AFRIFF Film & Content Market (AFCM): 

A dedicated marketplace for creators, studios, and financiers to trade and collaborate.

Hollywood Style Classy Accommodation in Lagos City

 

Hollywood Style Classy Luxury 1-2 Bedroom Apartments on Victoria Island and Lekki in Lagos City, the business heartbeat of Nigeria and the soul and spirit of Nollywood, the largest film industry in Africa.

The exquisite apartments of high class and style offer more than the luxury of the five star hotels and suites in Lagos and other cities in Nigeria.

Highly recommended with the guaranty of privacy and security.

From US$100 daily.

View the photo gallery exclusively on TALK OF THE TOWN By Orikinla 

http://totnaija.blogspot.com/2026/05/classy-luxury-1-2-bedroom-apartments-on.html

African Filmmakers Who Have Won the Palme d'Or, Grand Prix, Jury Prize and other Prizes at the Cannes Film Festival

African Filmmakers Who Have Won the Palme d'Or, Grand Prix, Jury Prize and  other Prizes at the Cannes Film Festival

The first and only African film so far to win the Palme d'Or was “Chronicle of the Years of Fire”, 1975 by  Algerian Filmmaker, Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina.
The film, a three-hour saga dramatized the socio-political conditions leading up to the 1954 Algerian War of Independence against French colonial rule. It remains a landmark moment as the only African and Arab production to win the prize.
Another African from Tunisia also won the Palme d'Or, Abdellatif Kechiche, regarded as Tunisian-French.  His romantic drama "Blue Is the Warmest Colour" won the Palme d'Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. But it is a French film and not an African film.

Mati Diop (Senegal/France): Made history in 2019 by becoming the first Black woman to have a film in the main competition, where she won the Grand Prix (the festival's second-most prestigious award) for her haunting drama Atlantics.

Idrissa Ouédraogo (Burkina Faso): Won the Grand Prix in 1990 for his critically acclaimed feature film Tilaï (The Law), which explores the clash between strict tribal traditions and personal desires.

Souleymane Cissé (Mali): Captured the Jury Prize (the third-highest honor) in 1987 for Yeelen (Brightness), a visually striking fantasy film rooted in Bambara mythology.

Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (Chad): Awarded the Jury Prize in 2010 for his moving father-son drama A Screaming Man (Un homme qui crie).
And his 2013 film "Grigris" was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festiva

South African films have also competed at the Cannes and Elaine Proctor's "Friends" won the Caméra d'Or at the1993 Cannes Film Festival.

The following African films have won the top prizes in the Un Certain Regard.
"A Thousand Months" (Mille mois) by Faouzi Bensaidi of Morocco won Prix le Premier Regard in 2003.
"Moolaadé" by the Father of African Cinema, Ousmane Sembène of Senegal won the Prix Un Certain Regard in 2004.
"Delwende" by S. Pierre Yameogo of Burkina Faso won the Prix de L'espoir in 2005.

See the African Filmmakers in the Diaspora  who have won Palme d’Or and other prizes at the Cannes Film Festival on
https://lnkd.in/eDpzGY_Q

Photos:
Mohamed Lakhdar-Hamina, Palme d’or – Chronique des années de braise – Ann Margret
.https://lnkd.in/eyE5WamJ

Mati Diop (Senegal/France): Made history in 2019 became the first Black woman to have a film in the main competition, where she won the Grand Prix (the festival's second-most prestigious award) for her haunting drama "Atlantics".

#cannesfilmfestival
#africa
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#palmedor
#juryprize
#grandprix
#diop
#Hamina
#Haroun
#sembene
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#yameogo

The Fake Atheism of Prof. Wole Soyinka, Yoruba Orisa, IFA Divination, My Philosophy and Christianity

Famous Nigerian Nobel Laureate, Prof . Wole Soyinka, has stated that he does not believe in the God of either Christianity or Islam, describing himself instead as an atheist with strong spiritual awareness.

He made the remark during an interview with Larry Madowo on CNN, where he spoke about his personal beliefs and religious background.

https://www.nairaland.com/8653352/islamic-christian-god-not-belief#

I wrote the following in response:

Dear Prof. Wole Soyinka,
You are not an atheist if you believe in Orisa like Ogun and Sango or any spiritual core.
Except you are confused.

Atheists do not believe in God. Atheism is defined by a lack of belief in any gods or deities, or the rejection of the assertion that they exist. It is not a belief system, religion, or a shared set of doctrines, but rather a lack of belief.

The so called atheists in Africa are fake atheists like the first black Nobel Laureate of Literature, Prof. Wole Soyinka who says he does not believe in God, but believes in the Yoruba Orisa gods and goddesses.

Like saying you don't believe in the existence of God, but you believe in the existence of demons and spirits.

Africans reject atheism, because it is a a contradiction of African belief in the existence of the origin of humans on earth.

Not believing that God exists does not mean He does not exist.

It only means you are ignorant of His existence within the scope of your knowledge.

I believe in the Almighty God, because to doubt the existence of God is to doubt your existence.

If God does not exist, then we cannot exist.

We are the evidence of the existence of God.

My belief in God is based on personal conviction from logical analysis of both traditional Yoruba beliefs in IFA from my father who was both a Babalawo and Ogun priest and a certificated metaphysician.

He wrote his IFA Divination on notebooks like mathematics.

Believe it or not, he had powers and spoke in the strange tongue of marine spirits and my mother testified of seeing a mermaid once.

My elder sister confirmed the existence.

A female friend confirmed their existence.

IFA Divination is more than 2,500 years old before the birth of JESUS Christ.

And IFA did not deny the existence of God and JESUS Christ.

The mathematics of Ifá is a sophisticated, ancient West African system of combinatorics and binary logic used in divination to navigate probability and decision-making. It consists of 256 fundamental patterns (Odu) generated through 4-bit binary variation—a 16x16 system of single or double marks that pre-dates European binary logic. This system forms a closed, exact logical universe mapping 16 major Odu and 240 derivative Odu.

Like computer algorithms, Ifá uses data encoding and retrieval, showing parallels to the computer science concept of 4-bit and 8-bit systems.

Obi Abata (Cola acuminata) is a four-lobed kola nut native to West Africa, crucial to Yoruba culture, tradition, and Ifá spirituality. It is used in prayers, offerings to Orisha/Ancestors, and divination, generally symbolizing hospitality, friendship, and the balance of masculine and feminine energies.

The number 4 is significant in both geometry and symmetry of mathematics in art and science and religion.

In physics, In physics, the number 4 is foundational, appearing prominently as the four fundamental forces (gravity, electromagnetism, strong nuclear, weak nuclear), the four dimensions of spacetime (

space +
time), and the four quantum numbers used to fully define an electron's state in an atom. 

Coming to Christian religion.

How can anyone explain how Prophet Isaiah who was a real historical person, widely believed by scholars to be a prophet who lived and ministered in Jerusalem during the 8th century BCE (approximately 742 BCE) accurately prophesied the birth, place of birth and death of JESUS Christ over 400 years before JESUS was born?" And the family tree of JESUS Christ is a historical fact.

The Road To Mountain of Fire and Miracles Church in Onike in Lagos

The Road To Mountain of Fire and Miracles Church in Onike in Lagos

A scene from the first phase of the principal photography of my on going documentary film, "Lagos in Motion" in 2016.

The camera is the narrator of the documentary on the sights and sounds of the largest megacity in Africa.

I have shot more than 40 hours so far and now on the final phase to complete the production.

I have not borrowed and have not applied for any funds for the production since 2016 to date.

I have spent my personal incomes and I have paid my crew and all the young tourists featured in the documentary film, including Nollywood actresses, Nunnsi Ojong, Celina Ideh and campus beauty queen, Franca Aide who  are graduates of the University of Calabar in Cross River State; fast rising actress, Magdalena Masha and model Cynthia Agu who is now in Poland. My black and beautiful production assistant, Chibuzor Okoro, my younger brother, Franklin UcheChukwu Eke, my friend, Tony Godson Uche Okeke and my production manager, Felix Omokagbo Jegede featured in the documentary film.

The principal cameraman Adesina Mutiu-Okediran used Sony FS 100 and I also used my own Sony digital camera for some of the shots. I shot this scene alone.

- Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima

#lagos

#nollywood

#documentaryfilm

#documentary

#megacity

#nigeria

#africa

#storytelling

#filmmaking

#narrator

#camera

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#church

LINDA IKEJI: 50 Most Outstanding Women in Nollywood and the Nigerian Film Industry

LINDA IKEJI: 50 Most Outstanding Women in Nollywood and the Nigerian Film Industry.

Linda Ikeji is a prominent Nigerian blogger, writer, and entrepreneur, widely recognized as a pioneer of the digital media landscape in Nigeria. She is best known for her highly influential and popular platform, Linda Ikeji's Blog, which focuses on Nigerian news, entertainment, lifestyle, and gossip. 

Career Overview

Early Career: 

Ikeji started writing at the age of 10 and began her career as a model and waitress to support herself through the University of Lagos, where she earned a degree in English language.
Blogging Pioneer: She started blogging as a hobby in 2006, using cybercafés due to limited internet access in Nigeria at the time. Her blog gained significant popularity around 2011 and became one of the most visited sites in Nigeria, reshaping how the country consumes entertainment news.

Media Mogul: 

Ikeji expanded her brand into a media empire, launching ventures such as Linda Ikeji TV (LITV), an online radio station (Linda Ikeji Radio), and a social networking site (Linda Ikeji Social).

Filmmaking: 

She has also ventured into film production, with recent projects including the movie Dark October (2023) and Reverse (2025), with the latter inspired by her personal experience of being denied hospital treatment. 

Influence and Recognition
Impact: 

Her success has been cited as a case study for the business of blogging in Africa by Forbes Africa. She is recognized for demonstrating the potential of new media as a viable business.

Philanthropy: 

Through her project "I'd rather be self-made; No thanks," she supports young women aged 16-25 with entrepreneurial aspirations, having disbursed millions of naira to help them start their businesses. 

Linda Ikeji is considered an integral part of the Nigerian digital age, a figure who evokes both praise as a hardworking pioneer and criticism for her controversial publications. 

PS;

The 50 Most Outstanding Women in Nollywood and the Nigerian Film Industry is a special feature in the third edition is the NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series to be printed in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA and will be distributed by Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other booksellers.

The "NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series" is a book series by Michael Chima Ekenyerengozi that provides a comprehensive overview of Nollywood, Nigeria's film industry. Published in both print and digital formats, the series aims to capture the "big picture" of the industry and is targeted at a global audience interested in Nigerian cinema.  

Focus: The series is a celebration and documentation of the Nigerian film industry, covering current affairs and notable aspects of Nollywood. 

Formats: It is available in multiple formats, including paperback, hard-cover, and e-copy versions. 

Distribution: The books are distributed in Nigeria, the U.S., the UK, Canada, the Caribbean, and other parts of the world to reach its target audience.

 

Author: Michael Chima Ekenyerengozi is credited as the author of the series.

#nollywood 

#chima

#books 

#series 

#mirror 

#movies 

#filmmarket 

#filmstudies 

#filmmaking

#education

#information

#nigeria

#canada

#uk

#unitedstates

#america

#caribbean

The Lack of Visionary Leadership in Africa and the Solution

The Lack of Visionary Leadership in Africa and the Solution

I have heard, listened and watched outstanding motivational speakers in Africa blaming European colonial Government in Africa for the political failures of majority of African leaders. In most cases, I don't agree with them, because I always say that the suit does not make the man, but the man makes the suit.
What makes a monk holy is his character and not the hood and cassock of his monastery.

Africa would have been worse today without Western education and there would not have been Western education without colonialism and there would not have been colonialism without Christianity. 
The White man gave us the Holy Bible first before his colonial rule.
Colonialism and neocolonialism are not the cause of the bad political leadership in Africa.
The carrot and stick or the divide and rule political tactics of the colonial rulers ended with the political Independence of African countries.

We don't lack leaders in Africa.
There is only lack of visionary leadership for democracy and good governance.
Majority of those who became the founding fathers of Independence and the end of colonial rule in Africa were political title chasers without the principles of transformational visionary leadership.
They didn't prepare their people for the nation building of their respective countries.
They just wanted to step into the big shoes of their colonial masters who were rulers and not leaders.
The colonial masters didn't come to lead Africans for an African Renaissance to compete with their Western Civilization. They came to rule and exploit Africa to expand their Western Civilization by imperialism.
They came for the human and mineral resources in Africa.

There are four pillars of the credibility of a great human personality for visionary leadership; they are Dignity, Humility, Integrity and Nobility.
Without which you cannot be a good leader before you can even talk of becoming a great visionary leader.

Majority of Africans are selfish by nature and that is why they have corrupt leaders with greed for power and wealth without conscience and without shame.

As I always say that Nigeria is what Nigerians are from the street to the Office of the President.
We reap the harvest of the seeds we have sown.
You cannot sow weed and reap the harvest of wheat.
We reap what we sow.

Selfish interests from ethnic differences of tribalism overtook national interests after the exit of the colonial rulers.
Regionalism and religional sectarianism of Christianity and Islam became the order of the day and the sociopolitical consequences have done collateral damage to political leadership in Africa.
Africa is what Africans are.
From tribalism to neopatrimonialism.

Africa has been blessed with great visionary leaders from the late Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah
of Ghana, Léopold Sédar Senghor of Senegal, António Agostinho Neto of Angola,Samora Moisés Machel of Mozambique, Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, Patrice Émery Lumumba of the Democratic Republic of the  Congo,
Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe,
Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa of Nigeria to Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia and the great Madiba Nelson Mandela of South Africa who were nation builders. But they passed on to eternal glory without credible successors.
Were they political mentors without credible successors?
Yes.

We cannot have great leadership without any successorship plan.

You must have the foresight and insight into the future for visionary leadership.
Study the life and legacy of the great Lee Kuan Yew, the Father of Modern Singapore. And I recommend him as a role model for visionary leadership in Africa. 

The world is still waiting for the rise of the roaring African lions to rise up like the Asian Tigers.

The Big Picture of the Future of Africa will be defined by a new generation of visionaries in every sphere of human development and they must be ready to be nation builders and not title chasers.

- - By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
The Author of "The Victory of Muhammadu Buhari and the Nigerian Dream", "The Prophet Lied", "In the House of Dogs" and other books distributed by Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other booksellers.
https://www.amazon.com/author/ekenyerengozimichaelchima

#africa
#nigeria
#ghana
#southafrica
#america
#europe
#singapore
#asia
#leadership
#leaders
#politics
#democracy
#colonialism
#neopatrimonialism
#government
#corruption
#econony
#future
#mandela
#yew
#visionary

Not Every Indian Film is Bollywood and Not Every Nigerian Movie is Nollywood

  

Not Every Indian Film is Bollywood and Not Every Nigerian Movie is Nollywood

Bollywood and Nollywood have been called the first and second largest film industries in the world for the production of the largest quantities of movies.

Bollywood is generally labelled as the Indian film industry. But it is not the overall representative of the film industry of India, because there is Tollywood, the popular Telugu film industry of Telugu language based in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in southeast India. Bollywood, the Hindi language Cinema is based in the city of Mumbai (formerly Bombay).

Tollywood was first coined before Bollywood and has a filmmaking history of over 100 years since 1909 when the Father of Telugu Cinema, Raghupathi Venkaiah Naidu produced short films and showed them in different regions of South Asia and he built the first Indian-owned cinema halls in South India in 1921.

Tollywood is the second largest film industry in India by box-office revenue after Bollywood. And Tollywood films sold 233 million tickets in 2022, the highest among all Indian film industries. As of 2023, Andhra Pradesh has the highest number of movie screens in India.

The boisterous Telugu film industry has several Guinness World Records such as the Ramoji Film City, which holds the Guinness World Record as the largest film studio complex in the world.

The second highest grossing Indian film so far, is "Baahubali 2: The Conclusion", a 2017 Tollywood epic action film directed by S. S. Rajamouli following the current highest grossing Indian film "Dangal"  a 2016 Bollywood biographical sports drama film directed by Nitesh Tiwari and produced by Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao.

I have written on the significance of the difference between Bollywood and Tollywood before on my Nigerians Report Online on Blogger.

Like Bollywood, Nollywood has been termed as the sobriquet of the Nigerian film industry since the name was coined by The New York Times in 2002. But the name Kannywood for the Hausa language film industry based in Kano was coined in 1999 before the The New York Times discovered Nollywood and said "it is like Hollywood" with starry-eyed guerilla filmmakers making dozens of movies daily from bootstraps budgets. All the movies were shot straight to video from handheld VHS cameras and sold in VHS tapes on the streets and stalls of Lagos and Onitsha before distribution to other countries across the borders to start the first indie film industry in Africa. 

While Nollywood is largely based in the predominantly Christian

southern region of Nigeria, Kannywood is based in the predominantly Islamic northern region of Nigeria.

Adamu Halilu, the Father of Hausa language Cinema was the first Nigerian indigenous filmmaker with the documentaries, "It Pays to Care" (1955) and "Hausa Village" (1958) and later made the classic film, Shaihu Umar (1976), a story of African slavery based on the novel of the same name by Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, first Prime Minister of Nigeria.

The first Hausa language home video, "Tirmin Danya " was produced in 1990 in Kano.

 The National Film and Video Censorship Board, (NFVCB) Abuja, started recording and censoring video films in Nigeria from 1995, and a total of 1600 Hausa video films were officially documented between 1995 and 2005.

Majority of the foreign film critics, journalists and scholars who claimed to be experts ignored Kannywood in their reports, features and books on the Nigerian film industry.  Both Nigerian and foreign scholars have done comprehensive researches and published books on Kannywood. The most popular are Dr. Idi Adam; Dr. Abdulkareem Abdulrahman; Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Ibrahim;

Dr. Carmen McCain; Prof. Brian Larkin and Dr. Mahmoud Nourah Bamalli.

Queen of Nollywood, Genevieve Nnaji.

Joint Queen of Nollywood, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde 

Queen of Kannywood, Rahama Sadau.

Alpha Male Nollywood actor, Enyinna Nwigwe.

My NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series is the first publication that has celebrated the beautiful queens of Kannywood on the same pedestal as the beautiful queens of Nollywood in the second edition published in 2014 and distributed by Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other booksellers in hardcover version, paperback version and Amazon Kindle version.

Ike Ude's photo book, "Nollywood: Radical Beauty" ignored the stars of Kannywood. 

The big problem of Kannywood is being under the dictatorship of the Islamic religion with majority of the actors, actresses and filmmakers being Muslims.

They are monitored by the Islamic police of Kano State and the other Sharia states in northern Nigeria with several cases of the violations of their fundamental human rights even in their private lives. 

Nollywood Alpha Male actor Enyinna Nwigwe can hug and kiss the Queens of Nollywood, Genevieve Nnaji and Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde in a romantic movie, but he cannot even dare to hug and kiss Rahama Sadau, the Queen of Kannywood on screen without incurring the wrath of the Islamic watchdogs of Kannywood.

-By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
International Digital Post Network Limited,
King of Kings Books International,
Screen Outdoor Open Air Cinema (SOOAC)

Publisher/Editor,

NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series,

The first book series on Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry

https://www.amazon.com/author/ekenyerengozimichaelchima
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelchimaeyerengozi
New Nigeria
www.pinterest.com/nigeriansreport

COMING SOON

The First Annual Bollywood To Nollywood Filmmaking Workshops

#bollywood

#tollywood

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#kannywood

#hollywood

#nigeria

#asia

#africa

#cinema

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#videos

#filmindustry

#entertainment

#books

#scholars

#newyorktimes

#hindi

#telugu

#christian

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No Nigerian Filmmaker is Among the Best and Greatest African Filmmakers

No Nigerian Filmmaker is Among the Best and Greatest African Filmmakers

I am currently doing research on my article on "African Cinema in the Eyes of the World". 

No Nigerian filmmaker is among the best and greatest filmmakers in African Cinema since 1925 to date. None of them is on the list of the to 10 African Filmmakers.

Only Newton Aduaka's multiple award winning film,"Ezra" that won the most prestigious award of the "Étalon d'or de Yennenga" (Golden Stallion of Yennenga) at the 2007 Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou or FESPACO) (held biennially in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. "Ezra" also other sspecial awards; including the Oumarou Ganda Prize, given for the best first film, and the Paul Robeson Prize for the best film by a director of the African diaspora named in honour of the major 20th-century American actor, singer and civil rights activist in the United States.) and C.J Obasi's cinematic masterpiece, "Mami Wata", the  2023 sci-fi drama based on the mythology of Nigerian marine spirits  are included in the best 100 African films so far.

"Mami Wata"'s  cinematographer Lílis Soares won the Special Jury Prize in the World Dramatic Competition and won three awards at FESPACO - Prix de la Critique Paulin S. Vieyra (African Critics Award), Meilleure Image (Cinematography Award) and Meilleur Décor (Set Design Award).

The first African film to win international recognition was Sembène Ousmane's "La Noire de (Black Girl). It won the Prix Jean Vigo in 1966. Ousmane is recognized as the Father of African Cinema.

Only one African film has won the highly coveted Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, "Chronicles of the Years of Fire" (1975) by Algerian director Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina. 

Then Mati Diop of Senegal became the only African woman to win the Grand Prix, the second-most prestigious award, for her film "Atlantics" in 2019.

"Tsotsi", a South African film is the first African film to win  the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2006 actually,  the first non-French language film from Africa to achieve this honor.  It was directed by Gavin Hood, based on a novel by Athol Fugard.

The first African film to win the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival was "U-Carmen eKhayelitsha", a South African drama directed by Mark Dornford-May, in 2005.

"Dahomey, directed by Mati Diop won the Golden Bear at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival in 2024, the first Black filmmaker to win the award. 

No African films has won the Toronto International Film Festival's People's Choice Award. However, "Mother, Mother" by Somalian filmmaker K'naan Warsame did receive the FIPRESCI Jury Award in 2024.

The Golden Globes celebrated a century of Egyptian Cinema in 2021. I have been working on "A Century of Nigerian Cinema: from Palaver To Nollywood - 1926-2026".

- by Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
The Publisher/Editor,
NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series, the first book series on Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry.

#africa
#africancinema
#nigeria
#nollywood
#filmmakers
#films
#academyawards
#filmfestival
#cannes
#berlin
#toronto
#Ousmane
#diop
#obasi
#aduaka
#blackgirl
#Tsotsi
#ezra
#mamiwata
#palmedor

#goldenlion
#goldenbear
#goldenglobes
#fespaco
#movies
#series
#books

Empowering Female Farmers in Nigeria

Women in Agriculture in Nigeria

Empowering Female Farmers in Nigeria

The largest labour force in Africa

This is the first time there will be a national community mobilization and sensitization of female farmers in Nigeria for the realization and utilization of their full potential for the sustainable development of agriculture and food security in the country.

Female farmers are the largest labour force in Nigeria.

More than 70 percent of the working population of Nigeria are farmers in the rural areas of the most populous country in Africa .

An estimated 70 percent of them are female farmers working on farms in different villages in the 774 local government areas of Nigeria.

Majority of them are poor and without complete formal education.

They need empowerment for the sustainable development of agriculture for food security and economic stability for the eradication of extreme poverty in Nigeria.

Food security is important to national security, because without food security there will be no national security.

A hungry man is an angry man.

No hungry man can defend his family, community and country.

Only a well fed man can have the strength to fight for his survival and welfare.

An army of hungry soldiers will not have the strength to defend their country in the battlefield.

No food, no power.

Starvation can cause the collapse and destruction of a nation.

Scarcity of food has caused widespread riots and looting on the streets that caused the downfall of a government administration.

Africa has 65 percent of the uncultivated arable land left in the world, to feed 9.5 billion people by 2050. Therefore, what Africa does with agriculture will determine the future of food in the world. “Essentially, food is money. The size of the food and agriculture market in Africa will reach $1 trillion by 2030.

USD $106bn finance gap in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia agricultural business - CABI.org

The Commercial Agriculture for Smallholders and Agribusiness (CASA) programme has published ‘The state of the agri-SME sector – Bridging the finance gap.’

A recent report estimates demand for financing, from around 220,000 agri-business SMEs in sub Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia at USD $160bn with banks, impact investors and other financial intermediaries providing only USD $54bn. Furthermore, almost all climate funding is targeted at mitigation measures, rather than supporting ways to for agriculture to adapt to the climate crisis with less than 2% of global climate finance – or USD $10bn – being channelled to small-scale agriculture.

Nigeria has the largest arable land in Africa.
Women make up about 70% of the agricultural workforce in Nigeria. 
They contribute to about 70% of the country's food production.

In Nigeria, according to the World Bank, closing the gender productivity gap could increase GDP by US$2.3 billion and decrease global food insecurity by two percentage points, thereby putting nutritious food on the tables of another 45 million people.

https://www.thecable.ng/nigerian-women-in-agriculture-a-catalyst-for-food-security-economic-growth-and-family-well-being/

Eliciting the Gender Income Influences on Household’s Food Security in West Africa: 

Heliyon

https://www.cell.com/heliyon/fulltext/S2405-8440(23)04616-9?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS2405844023046169%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

Women in Agriculture in Nigeria is a public forum for the empowerment and upliftment of female farmers in Nigeria for the sustainable development of agriculture to increase the cultivation and production of both food crops and cash crops for local consumption and export to other countries.

We are going to launch a national directory and website for all the female farmers in Nigeria who estimated to be over 30 million working on farmlands in the rural areas.

Majority of the farmers in Nigeria are women

Nigerian female farmers are among the most underpaid low income workers in Nigeria, because majority of them are not privileged to own farmlands.

Majority of them are farming on the farmlands of their husbands, brothers or uncles, because daughters are not entitled to any inheritance of lands from their fathers by custom and tradition of majority of the tribes.

Only sons are entitled to be shareholders in the inheritance of lands

Women in Agriculture in Nigeria will empower underprivileged female farmers to unite and form cooperatives for the join-ownership of farmlands and to become joint-venture partners in agroallied ventures such as having silos and factories for processing of crops for the production of flours, cereals and drinks for local consumption and export to other countries.

We are going to introduce Nano drones for farming in Nigeria as female farmers are doing in India.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1FnG3TE2qM/

The productions of flours from cassava,maizes, tiger nuts, oranges, mangoes, coconuts, groundnuts, dates, etc have become very profitable agroallied ventures in many developing countries.

We will help in increasing the economic growth of Nigerian women in agriculture with significant contribution to the GDP of Nigeria.

Africa Food Trade & Resilience Initiative
Food Security Monitor - AGRA
https://agra.org/publications/food-security-monitor-3/


- by Mrs. Stella Unah,
National Coordinator,
Women in Agriculture in Nigeria (WAN)

About Female Farmers in Nigeria

"Women play a crucial role in Nigerian agriculture, accounting for a significant portion of the farming population and contributing heavily to food production. They are involved in various aspects of the agricultural value chain, from planting and harvesting to processing and marketing. Despite their vital contributions, women often face challenges like limited access to land, finance, and technology, which hinder their ability to fully realize their potential.

Key Roles of Women in Nigerian Agriculture:

Farm Management and Labor:
Women are actively involved in managing farms and providing labor, often performing tasks like planting, weeding, harvesting, and processing crops.

Food Crop Production:
Nigerian women are primarily involved in the production of food crops such as maize, cowpea, melon, pepper, cassava, and vegetables.
Livestock Production:
In some cases, women also participate in small-scale animal production, including small ruminants, poultry, and aquaculture.
Processing and Marketing:
Women are heavily involved in processing and marketing farm produce, contributing to the food value chain.

Challenges Faced by Women in Nigerian Agriculture:

Limited Access to Land:
Traditional land tenure systems and cultural norms often limit women's access to land ownership and control, hindering their ability to participate in agriculture.
Financial Constraints:
Women often lack access to finance, making it difficult for them to purchase inputs, hire labor, or scale up production.

Gender Inequality:
Social norms and gender-based divisions of labor can restrict women's decision-making power and limit their ability to manage farms independently.
Knowledge and Training Gaps:
Limited access to information and training can affect women's ability to adopt modern farming techniques and best practices.

Efforts to Empower Women Farmers:
Government Initiatives:
The Nigerian government and various organizations are implementing programs to empower women farmers, such as the National Women in Agriculture Programme (NWAP) according to Rural 21.

Capacity Building:
Training and capacity-building programs are being offered to equip women farmers with the skills and knowledge they need to improve their productivity and income according to Rural 21.

Financial Inclusion:
Efforts are being made to improve women's access to finance through microfinance institutions and other financial services.
Advocacy and Awareness:
Advocacy groups and NGOs are working to raise awareness about the contributions of women in agriculture and to advocate for policies that support their empowerment. "

IEC Applications Can End Extreme Poverty in the World

IEC Applications Can End Extreme Poverty in the World

I am one of those involved in the concerted efforts for the eradication of extreme poverty in the world. And I have reached the advanced final stage in the development of the applications that can reduce poverty by 80 percent with IEC, Information, Education and Communication methods which I have seen during my years of working as an IEC field officer for the Center for Education, Population, AIDS and Drug Abuse (CEPADA), an NGO founded by Mrs. Hadiyat O. Shitta-Bey, a former award winning Program Specialist in the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) when I did Market Based Distribution (MBD) surveys of the largest markets in Lagos, the most populous state in Nigeria and the largest megacity in Africa and when I was contracted as a public health illustrator and translator for the production and publication of family planning methods booklets in Pidgin English, Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa for semi literates distributed by the Planned Parenthood Federation of Nigeria (PPFN) and as a national Program Consultant for the Child Survival and Development (CSD) projects of the UNICEF in Nigeria.

The first mobile app for all the users to GSM phones has been in development since 2014 and I have also completed the layout for a SaaS e-commerce and fintech app for interactive IEC through social network for wealth creation and distribution among all the users of mobile phones in Nigeria and other countries.

Imagine an app with X Amazon and Paypal combined.

My advocacy for the education of the millions of girls out of school in Nigeria is fundamental in the eradication of extreme poverty in developing countries, because surveys have shown that majority of the people living in poverty come from families with mothers who did not go to school or dropped out of school.

In Nigeria, we found out that almost 90 percent of the bandits and terrorists on rampage in northern Nigeria were born by mothers who did not go to school and without any formal education and thousands of their children were destitutes. Their rebellion against law and order was caused by lack of parenting and poverty with uneducated parents who did not have the information on family planning and family welfare. 

They continue to breed children they cannot feed and they cannot afford to send to school. 

Extreme poverty is largely due to ignorance and illiteracy.

With the use of IEC applications through mobile phones, millions of the people in poverty will be taken out of poverty.

The first MVP of the mobile app was among the top finalists for tech innovation awards in Africa in 2014 and the pitch for the SaaS e-commerce and fintech app was shortlisted for the a tech startups hackathon in Africa in 2022.

Both mobile apps will advance the decentralization of e-commerce and fintech platforms in all communities in Nigeria and other countries and downloaded without any payment by all those who can use mobile phones and the IEC applications will be in their own languages. 

- by Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,

The CEO, 

International Digital Post Network Limited