iPost From Lagos To San Francisco

In 2013, I launched the Screen Naija Outdoor Cinema project of my Screen Outdoor Open Air Cinema (SOOAC) cosponsored by the Bank of Industry (BoI) of Nigeria at the Freedom Park on Lagos Island and attracted the IMAX Corporation of Canada to come to Nigeria to meet with me the BoI and the Amuwo Odofin Local Government with the choice of having the first IMAX Cinema in West Africa. I organized the first United Nations' International Day of the Girl Child celebrated in Nigeria with the premiere of the acclaimed documentary film, "Girl Rising" at the Silverbird Cinemas in the Silverbird Galleria on Victoria Island, Lagos. I published the first edition of the NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series, the first book series on Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry printed in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA..And I started the development of the iPost mobile video app with developers in Asia which was one of the 10 finalists of the annualu Fundfor Internet Research and Development – FIRE Africa Awards in 2014 for outstanding tech innovation. 

https://www.fireafrica.org/2014-fire-awards

I am satisfied with the app, but I want it to offer more than news and entertainment to include eCommerce and fintech and also include a channel for blockchain. 

iPost will be more advanced than Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. It has attracted angel investors in Silicon Valley in southern San Francisco Bay Area of California, the home of Apple, Facebook and Google and recently top NIgerian unicorn Flutterwave.  iPost is already among the new most anticipated startups on AngelList which raised a $100 million Series B led by Tiger and Accomplice at a $4 billion valuation.

The preseed fundraising round of iPost Nigeria will be done by an Asian equity firm that has done successful fundraising rounds for many startups, including two Nigerian startups.

Nigeria is the capital of startups in Africa with more unicorns than in any other country on the continent. And iPost Nigeria will become one of them one fine day. 

The Scramble for Nollywood and The Status of Lagos State

The Scramble for Nollywood and The Status of Lagos State

Everyone wants to have a bite of a hot pizza. 

I hope the current scramble for Nollywood by the major streaming video services from America is not like the scramble for Africa by European powers  (between 1881 and 1914).

Entertainment is Power 

I wonder if the Nigerian government knows the dynamics of the overwhelming power of our entertainment industry beyond the glitz and razzmatazz and surplus  economic returns.

The internet has become the most powerful vehicle of the entertainment industry since the inventions of the cinema and television.

The sociocultural, socioeconomic and sociopolitical powers of entertainment can define and determine the future of a nation and the civilization of the people.

Entertainment generates more revenues for America than oil. 

That is why California is the richest state in the United States.

The economy of California, with a gross state product of $3.2 trillion as of 2019, is the largest sub-national economy in the world.

California is the home of Hollywood, Silicon Valley and Mountain View, the headquarters of the entertainment industry and of the Big Techs, including Apple, Alphabet and Meta. And is home to five of the world's ten largest companies by market capitalization and four of the world's ten richest people.

Without the internet, these Big Techs will not be Big and without entertainment, they will not become the biggest tech giants in the world.

Lagos is the powerhouse of the economy of Nigeria and the capital of the entertainment industry in Nigeria, the home of Nollywood and the home of Yabacon, the Silicon Valley of Nigeria where there are the first tech unicorns in Africa. And Lagos can become to Nigeria what California is to America. 

As it has been noted that if California were a country, it would be the fifth largest economy in the world, likewise Lagos would be the fifth-largest economy in Africa if it were a country.

The realization of the awesome developments of tech startups connected to the entertainment industry in Lagos is what has attracted the biggest American streaming video services to Nollywood. 

Disney already has a base in Nigeria with the long term partnership with Kugali Media.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/11/africa/disney-africa-kugali-iwaju-partnership-spc-intl/index.html

I am excited about the Scramble for Nollywood and the competition for our original content. 

Only the best is good enough for us. 

As we say in my mother tongue of Igbo language, NKIRUKA, which means that the future is greater. 

This is the Big Picture of Nollywood I saw coming years ago. The future is here.

- By EKENYERENGOZI Michael Chima 

Publisher/Editor, 

NOLLYWOOD MIRROR®Series 

247 Nigeria (@247nigeria) / Twitter

https://mobile.twitter.com/247nigeria

https://www.amazon.com/author/ekenyerengozimichaelchima

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelchimaeyerengozi

Google, Apple, and Netflix Top List of Companies Generation Z Wants To Work For

The Rise of the Gen Z VC

“The barriers to entrepreneurship and investing have never been lower, and our generation is very aware of the opportunity we have.”

Generation Z is growing up and getting a tech job.

The oldest members of the world’s first truly digital native generation—folks born from the mid-1990s to 2010—are starting their careers, and they overwhelmingly want to work in tech.

Google, Apple, and Netflix top list of companies they want to work for, and 72% fancy the idea of becoming founders themselves.

Which raises a question: Who’s going to fund all those new startups?

According to a new report from AngelList, a new crop of Gen Z investors is emerging. They’re 10k strong and launching VC funds from their dorm rooms.

Click here to read the report

When Mark Zuckerberg Met Me and Later Met President Muhammadu Buhari

#mondayvibes💋✌🏼️ 

#Facebook  just posted these two photos this morning to remind me from four years ago when the celebrated Cofounder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg met with me at the Afrinolly Space in Oregun, Lagos, courtesy of Mr. Chike Maduegbuna and Mrs. Jane Maduegbuna during his first visit to sub Saharan Africa. And afterwards, he went to Abuja to meet with His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR. 

My meeting with Mark was not a coincidence and he walked straight to me and we had a handshake before he turned to the other two men in the office of Mr. Chike Maduegbuna, the CEO of Afrinolly Space; the one in suit was a branch manager of Wema Bank and the other one beside him came from Air France office in Lagos. Mark Elliot Zuckerberg is an American media magnate, internet entrepreneur, and philanthropist and according to @Forbes has a Net worth of 98.3 billion USD (2020) And I can be described as a Nigerian media magnate, internet entrepreneur and Christian philanthropist. My net worth?

Only Almighty God knows what I am worth. And in Silicon Valley, I am known as a startup evangelist,  developing iPost mobile video app and iNolly OTT multimedia video chatting, sharing and eCommerce app.

https://angel.co/u/mmichael-chima-ekenyerengozi

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ART IS A FIGURE OF SPEECH

Original NFT by EKENYERENGOZI Michael Chima

Price US$100, 000