U.S. Census Bureau Report: Nigerians Outpace U.S. Educational and Occupational Levels

Census Bureau: Selected Sub-Saharan African and Caribbean Ancestry Groups Making Their Mark: Nigerians Outpace U.S. Educational and Occupational Levels

WASHINGTON, JUNE 28, 2017  /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- About 61 percent of people with Nigerian ancestry age 25 and older had a bachelor's degree or higher — more than twice the U.S. rate of 28.5 percent, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report on Characteristics of Selected Sub-Saharan African and Caribbean  Ancestry Groups in the United States: 2008-2012 released today.

This new report from the 2008-2012 American Community Survey covers the population who reported Sub-Saharan African ancestry — Ethiopian and Nigerian — and Caribbean (West Indian) ancestry — Haitian, Jamaican, and Trinidadian and Tobagonian. These ancestry groups were selected due to their relatively small populations and being under researched compared to their counterparts. About 2.5 million people in the United States  identified as one of these ancestry groups, or around 0.8 percent of the total U.S. population. This represents an increase of about 2.1 million, or around 469 percent, since the 1980 Census.


About 61 percent of people with Nigerian ancestry age 25 and older had a bachelor’s degree or higher — more than twice the U.S. rate of 28.5 percent, according to a U. S. Census Bureau report on Characteristics of Selected Sub-Saharan African and Caribbean (West Indian) Ancestry Groups in the United States: 2008-2012 released today.
"Acquiring a college or other advanced degree was a major factor for many people of Nigerian ancestry coming to the United States, so it is not surprising that twice as many had a bachelor's degree or higher compared to all people and the other selected ancestry groups," said Dr. Stella Ogunwole, a demographer in the Population Division.

Every Day More than 500 People Come To Settle in Lagos

Every day more than 500 people come to Lagos to start a new life in Africa's largest megacity.

The immediate former Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Raji ­Fashola, SAN, once dropped the following bombshell so calmly it would have been easy to miss: he believes the city’s optimum population is 40 million.
~ Fashola, The Man Who Transformed Lagos - Matthew Green Of Financial Times - Politics - Nigeria
http://www.nairaland.com/3315702/fashola-man-transformed-lagos-matthew

Lagos, which is the smallest state in Nigeria by land mass has become the most populous and the most prosperous.
Lagos was the federal capital of Nigeria before losing the status to Abuja in 1991, but has become one of the fastest growing cities in the world as the commercial capital of Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa and the continent's largest economy boosted by the rapid development of Lagos state with a population of more than 21 million people attracting both local and global investors to become the richest state in Nigeria and fifth biggest economy in Africa as the largest megacity with the highest GDP.

Lagos is also the heartbeat of the continent for entertainment with the phenomenal Nollywood, the largest home entertainment industry in Africa and second largest home videos industry in the world after Bollywood of India and ahead of Hollywood in production of home videos.
The  GDP of Lagos alone exceeds that of Kenya, East Africa’s biggest  economy.
Lagos has more international five star hotels and multinational corporations than other countries in West Africa.

~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima, Publisher/Editor of @247Nigeria, Nigerians Report Online, Talk of The Town By Orikinla and other blogs. He is the author of "Lagos in Motion: A Photo Album of Africa's Largest Megacity" distributed worldwide by Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other booksellers.

Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima also popularly known by his pen name "Orikinla Osinachi" started his writing career at 18 as a scriptwriter for the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) Channel 10 in Lagos.
He became a project artist for the Johns Hopkins University's Population Communication Services (JHU/PCS) at 21; Art/Features Editor for the Kiddies World magazine at 24; Program Consultant for UNICEF Nigeria at 25; ; Curator of the first Art Against AIDS exhibition in Africa held at the National Museum and National Arts Theatre in December, 1993 in Lagos by the Nigerian Network of NGOs (NNNGO); Production Manager of "Money Wise" for Media Network on DBN TV in Lagos from 1998-2000 and also worked for Redemption Light, the official magazine of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) in the office of the famous General Overseer, Pastor E. A. Adeboye. He started his King of Kings Books International publishing company in 2000 and became the  Founder/Executive Director of the United Artists for Human Development (UAHD) Project in 2002; Founder/CEO of International Digital Post Network Limited( IDPNL) in 2009 and Screen Outdoor Open Air Cinema (SOOAC) in 2013.

He is a prize winning writer since when he won the first prize in the Pop magazine national essay competition at 13. His first book, "Children of Heaven" (collection of poems) was published by Krystal Publications Limited in 1987.  His other books are  "Scarlet Tears of London"(poems), "In the House of Dogs"(essays), "Diary of the Memory Keeper"( memoirs), "The Prophet Lied"(poems), "The Victory of Muhammadu Buhari and the Nigerian Dream"(essays and photographs);  coauthor of "Naked Beauty" screenplay; Publisher/Editor of "The Language of True Love" and the popular NOLLYWOOD MIRROR®Series.

He is the Founder and first Festival Director of the Eko International Film Festival, Founder/Executive Director of Screen Naija One Village, One Cinema Project. He has registered a new international film festival, Zenith International Film Festival in 2015. He has been developing his iPost Nigeria mobile video sharing and eCommerce app for all users of smart phones in the world and also launched his Screen Naija YouTube Channel in 2016.

In 2016, he was given an award as one of the top publishers in Nigeria and included in the book on "Nigerian Top Executives in the Design, Printing and Publishing Industry" edited Elvis Krivokuca, MBA and he is also referenced in other books by leading scholars, including "Words Onscreen. The Fate of Reading in a Digital World" by Prof. Naomi S. Baron; Professor of Linguistics and Executive Director of the Center for Teaching, Research & Learning at American University in Washington, DC.

He is widely known for promoting and supporting the education, protection and welfare of underprivileged girls in Nigeria and other countries. He cosponsored and co- hosted the Nigerian premiere of the CNN groundbreaking documentary film, "Girl Rising" in 2013 and in 2015, "HE NAMED ME MALALA" documentary film of Malala Yousafzai, the young Pakistani girl education activist and youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner. He is the Founder/Executive Director of Girls United Together for Success (GUTS) Project.

He produced and directed his first major documentary film, "Lagos in Motion: Sights and Sounds of Africa's Largest Megacity" and published the photo book, "Lagos in Motion: Photo Album of Africa's Largest Megacity" distributed worldwide by Amazon and other booksellers. His new book, "Bye, Bye Zimbabwe", a collection of his original stories will be published in 2017. He has been interviewed by Times International magazine in 1980; Radio Nigeria in 1983; West Africa magazine in 1984; NTA Channel 10 in 1993; BBC in 2003; ThisDay and others. And his artworks have been exhibited in Nigeria and in Japan since 1983.

Read more on
https://www.amazon.com/author/ekenyerengozimichaelchima

Michael Chima Ekenyerengozi | IndieWire http://www.indiewire.com/author/michael-chima-ekenyerengozi

Video: Investing in Africa's Future: Opportunities for Youth

Investing in Africa's Future: Opportunities for Youth
Africa Day 2017 Celebration

 WASHINGTON, June 23, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center (RRB/ITC) in Washington, DC came alive with music, dance and ceremony Thursday, May 25th in celebration of the 54th anniversary of Africa Day. Approximately six hundred attendees, representing the 55 countries of the African Union (AU) and the African Diaspora, observed in awe as the African Group of Ambassadors made a grand entrance into the atrium during a ceremony that began an evening of pageantry and joy. The evening was a culmination of day-long activities, which focused on AU's commitment to investing in its most important natural resource, its youth.
LINK TO SHORT VIDEO:  https://youtu.be/p8-qtPgwpXE

Nigerian Women Are the Worst Enemies of the Education of Poor Girls

Nigerian Women Are the Worst Enemies of the Education of Poor Girls

The European Union reported that Nigeria is the country where trafficking in human beings is most prevalent. This is a fact that cannot be denied.

From human trafficking of underage girls used as housemaids or hawkers of provisions on the streets to the teenage girls lured and kidnapped for baby factories or used as prostitutes in hundreds of brothels and thousands of others transported like sheep across the borders by sex traffickers; Nigerian girls have become the most endangered human species in the world.

The Most Lucrative Wireless Industry Opportunities on the Planet

The Most Lucrative Wireless Industry Opportunities on the Planet

LONDON, June 21, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The U.S. wireless market is already mature, so giants like AT&T are looking south, where the revolution is still in the throes of profitability and billionaires are now being minted. But the best opportunity is a $75.6-billion niche market that forms the backbone of the wireless industry.

Few investors have even caught on to this segment yet, but three companies in this most profitable niche have already seen crazy 10-year returns, and combined they have risen to a market cap of more than $100 billion-and they're just getting started.

The fourth is the only entry point into this explosive market for companies like Frontier Communications Corporation (NYSE:FTR), Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), Sprint Corporation (NYSE:S), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Charter Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHTR).

The market is cell towers, and the entry point is Tower One Wireless (CNX:TO; TOWTF).

This industry no longer suffers from skeptics, like it did when Ronald Reagan gave away tons of service provider licenses in the 1980s and major investors mocked wireless communications as something that had no mass appeal. Those who saw the future in this became billionaires.

The same thing is now unfolding in Latin America, but the playing field is fiercely competitive-except in this one special niche. Cell towers are the fastest and purest route to profit, and there are only four publicly traded independent cell tower companies in the entire world.

Click here to read the full report.

MTN Benin and Youtap Launch MoMoPay Contactless Payments for MTN Benin Mobile Money Customers

Youtap's portable new X8 device enables mobile money merchant payments instantly.

MTN Benin and Youtap Launch MoMoPay Contactless Payments for MTN Benin Mobile Money Customers
   
COTONOU, Benin, June 20, 2017  /PRNewswire/ -- Mobile network operator MTN Benin and Youtap have launched MoMoPay, a contactless mobile payment service for MTN Benin Mobile Money users.

MoMoPay enables MTN Benin Mobile Money customers to 'tap and pay' for goods and services instantly and securely with their mobile devices. The service relies on near-field communication (NFC) technology developed by Youtap, a global provider of contactless mobile payments and financial services software.


MTN Benin CEO Stephen Blewett and a Zemidjin motorcycle taxi driver display the MoMoPay tag and Youtap's X8 payment terminal at the MoMoPay launch event in Cotonou, Benin.

An innovative feature of MoMoPay is the ability for users to make payments and receive small change (rendu monnaie) from merchants directly into their MTN Mobile Money accounts, solving the problem of giving small change back to customers that many merchants face today.

MoMoPay is being rolled out to supermarkets, pharmacies, bookstores, restaurants and petrol stations in Cotonou and to Zemidjan motorcycle taxis, which are the main form of transport in the country. The service will be expanded to all parts of Benin.

Accenture Sets Goal to Achieve Gender Balanced Workforce by 2025

Accenture Sets Goal to Achieve Gender Balanced Workforce by 2025

JAKARTA, Indonesia, June 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Accenture (NYSE: ACN) announced that it will achieve a gender-balanced workforce, with 50 percent women and 50 percent men, by 2025.

"We believe strongly that gender equality is essential for a high-performing, innovation-led organization," said Pierre Nanterme, Accenture's chairman and CEO. "Diversity makes our business stronger and more innovative and, most important, it makes the world better. With this new goal, we are sending an important message to our people and our clients that our future workforce is an equal workforce."

Currently, Accenture has 150,000 women, nearly 40 percent of its global workforce. Over the past several years the company has set milestones on the path to gender equality. These include:

Fincho: The Making of the First Nigerian Film in Colour By Sam Zebba

Fincho: The Making of the First Nigerian Film in Colour By Sam Zebba

Sam Zebba directing "Fincho" in Nigeria.

Many people have read about Sam Zebba's "Fincho", the first film shot in colour in Nigeria in 1955 and post production was done in the United States of America and it was released in 1957. But majority of Nigerians and others have little or no knowledge about the great filmmaker, Sam Zebba who passed away in Israel on February 27, 2016.

I have decided to publish this comprehensive documentary report on him, comprising his own memoir on how he made "Fincho"; an article on him before he passed on and a memorial tribute written by David (Dudi) Sebba published by www.esra-magazine.com.

What Sam Zebba documented on the circumstances of the events that occurred during the making of "Fincho" can be a fanstatic movie. And publishing it on a Nigerian website is important in recognition of the Nigerian cast and crew. They have made history and we must remember them in the history of Nigerian cinema.

Fincho- Adventure in Nigeria 1955:
Adventure in the interior of Nigeria

One night in 1954, at the home of my London relatives, Boria and Rena Behrman, Boria showed some 8mm color footage he had taken at their timber concession in Nigeria. The Behrman family had been in the timber business for several generations, still in the ‘old country’ (Latvia), and the Nigeria concession was a new extension of their UK firm, Finch & Company. What I saw there was formidable. Giant trees were being felled in the jungle and hundreds of bare-handed African workers were pulling the heavy trunks through the mud.
I realized that this could be a starting point for an extraordinary documentary and perhaps even more than that. For some time I had felt a strong desire to move from the short film, my medium hitherto, to full-length form. If I could find a human story to fit into the tree felling process, perhaps the chance of realizing this was here.
Boria generously said I could stay in one of the bungalows built for the white staff at the concession, and film whatever I wanted. Admittedly, it would be foolhardy to go script-less into the unknown, but therein lay the challenge. And so, toward the end of the Central African rainy season in 1955, equipped with a 16mm Arriflex camera, a portable sound recording device, and a reasonable amount of Kodachrome color film, I set out on a flight to Lagos, the capital of Nigeria at the time, and from there, mostly over unpaved and ill-maintained dirt roads, passing through two enormous clusters of mud huts, Ibadan and Benin City, to the Finch timber concession in the faraway Kingdom of the Olowo (Ruler) of Owo.

Nigerian Film Industry: Misplacing Priorities, Title Chasers and Under Achievers

The best filmmakers and achievers in Nollywood and Kannywood are not the ones contesting for temporary posts for bragging rights in the local guilds or international associations, but those who are busy making movies and making waves in local and international competitions and attracting international investments in the Nigerian film industry.

 From EbonyLife TV.

 From Screen Naija YouTube.

From a Nollywood location.

With all the brouhaha and hullabaloo over Nollywood and Kannywood and the appointments of Managing Directors of the Nigerian Film Corporation and title chasers of the guilds and associations, Nigeria does not have a single film treaty with any country in the world and no film market.

10 Biafran Igbos To Sue Lt.Gen. Buratai and 13 Other Nigerians in U.S Court

United States District Court Enters Order Authorizing Ten Biafran Plaintiffs To Sue Fourteen Nigerian Defendants For Complicity In Torture And Extrajudicial Killings Under Color Of Nigerian Law Stemming From Peaceful Biafran Protests Against Ethnic And Religious Oppression
   
WASHINGTON, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Statement of law firm Fein & DelValle PLLC:

The United States District Court for the District of Columbia entered an order on June 2, 2017  authorizing ten (10) Biafran Plaintiffs to sue fourteen Nigerian Defendants for complicity in the 2016 torture and extrajudicial killings under color of Nigerian law to retaliate for peaceful Biafran protests against ethnic or religious oppression.  The next step in the litigation is to serve the Torture Victims Protection Act and Alien Tort Claims Act Complaint on the Nigerian Defendants.

The Biafran Plaintiffs are seeking millions of dollars of damages to compensate for their grievous losses and suffering.  The case name is John Doe, et al v. Tukur Yusuf Buratai et al, United States District Court for the District of Columbia Civil Action No. 1:17-cv-01033.  It has been assigned to United States District Judge Ellen S. Huvelle, appointed by President William Jefferson Clinton.