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.

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