SGF Lauds Akokwa Christian Elite Forum's Comittment To Nation-
Building
Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Boss Mustapha has
commended the Akokwa Christian Elite Forum for its contribution to
nation-building.
He described the Forum as an assemblage of patriots who have the progress
and unity of Nigeria at heart saying the Akokwa nation was lucky to have
them as sons and daughters.
The SGF was speaking at the annual Akokwa Eminent Persons Dinner powered by
the Forum.
The Akokwa Christian Elite Forum hosted Mustapha to this years.
An apolitical and non-governmental Christian body, Akokwa Christian Elites
is made up of businessmen and women, professionals, intellectuals and other
categories of peace-loving and socially constructive men and women of Akokwa
in Ideato North council area of Imo state who believe in the supremacy of
God and who live a life guided by Him through the Christian faith.
The annual dinner attracts eminent personalities. Among highly placed
Nigerians who had in the past been hosted to dinner by the body include
captains of industry, political leaders, academics, professionals, religious
leaders among others.
These include Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa of Neimeth International Pharmaceutical Plc.,
and former Chairman Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), Mr Tony Ewelike,
CEO, A. G Homes, Arc. Azike Diribe, a First-class Architect of the Integrated
Consortium, Mr Marvel Akpoyibo, retired Deputy Inspector General of Police
(DIG) Administration, Professor Pat Utomi of the Lagos Business School, His
Excellency Senator Anyim Pius Anyim (GCON), former Secretary to the
Government of the Federation (SGF), Bar. James Ocholi (SAN), the
Pro-Chancellor of Salem University, Kogi State, Arc Ifeanyi Odedo, Managing
Director, Sharon Ultimate and Sharon Regency Hotels, Abuja, Dr Uche Ogah(OON),
Minister of State, Mines and Steel.
Various speakers at the event praised the dexterity of the brains behind the
Forum and paid glowing tributes to them.
Earlier in his address, President of the Forum, Cliff Onyeje said, "we are
partners in the socio-economic and spiritual growth of our people.
"Like past dinners, this year's dinner is geared towards this".
The 46th annual Toronto International Film Festival begins on September 9 to 18, 2021. And following the strict protocol for the control and prevention of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, it will be a "hybrid" of physical and digital screenings of both the official selection and special presentations and for other programmes.
The opening film is "Dear Evan Hansen" by Stephen Chbosky, an adaptation of the Tony-winning musical of the same title.
“This film is ultimately about healing, forgiveness, and reaffirms how connected and essential we all are to one another. We couldn’t think of a more important idea to celebrate this year as we come together once again to share the power and joy of cinema in theaters together," said Cameron Bailey, the Artistic Director and Co-Head of TIFF.
The closing film is "One Second" by Zhang Yimou.
CONTEMPORARY WORLD CINEMA
Are You Lonesome Tonight? (Wen Shipei)
The Box (La Caja) (Lorenzo Vigas)
Costa Brava, Lebanon (Costa Brava) (Mounia Akl)
The Daughter (La Hija) (Manuel Martín Cuenca)
The Hill Where the Lionesses Roar (Luaneshat e kodrës) (Luàna Bajrami)
Întregalde (Radu Muntean)
Kicking Blood (Blaine Thurier)
La Soga 2 (Manny Perez)
Maria Chapdelaine (Sébastien Pilote)
Medusa (Anita Rocha da Silveira)
Murina (Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović)
Nobody Has to Know (Bouli Lanners)
The Odd-Job Men (Sis dies corrents) (Neus Ballús)
The Other Tom (El otro Tom) (Rodrigo Plá)
OUT OF SYNC (Tres) (Juanjo Giménez)
Terrorizers (Ho Wi Ding)
Unclenching The Fists (Kira Kovalenko)
Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash (Seperti Dendam, Rindu Harus Dibayar Tuntas) (Edwin)
The Wheel (Steve Pink)
Whether the Weather is Fine (Kun Maupay Man It Panahon) (Carlo Francisco Manatad)
DISCOVERY
Aloners (Hong Sung-eun)
Anatolian Leopard (Anadolu Leoparı) (Emre Kayış)
A Banquet (Ruth Paxton)
Dug Dug (Ritwik Pareek)
As In Heaven (Du som er i himlen) (Tea Lindeburg)
Farha (Darin J. Sallam)
The Game (Ana Lazarevic)
Learn To Swim (Thyrone Tommy)
Lo Invisible (Javier Andrade)
Paka (River of Blood) (Nithin Lukose)
Quickening (Haya Waseem)
Scarborough (Shasha Nakhai, Rich Williamson)
Snakehead (Evan Jackson Leong)
To Kill The Beast (Agustina San Martín)
Tug of War (Vuta N’Kuvute) (Amil Shivj)i
Wildhood (Bretten Hannam)
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
Ali & Ava (Clio Barnard)
All My Puny Sorrows (Michael McGowan)
Benediction (Terence Davies)
Bergman Island (Mia Hansen-Løve)
Charlotte (Eric Warin, Tahir Rana)
Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over (Dave Wooley, David Heilbroner)
Drive My Car (Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
Encounter (Michael Pearce)
The Guilty (Antoine Fuqua)
I’m Your Man (Maria Schrader)
Inexorable (Fabrice du Welz)
Lakewood (Phillip Noyce)
The Middle Man (Bent Hamer)
Official Competition (Mariano Cohn, Gastón Duprat)
Paris, 13th District (Jacques Audiard)
Petite Maman (Céline Sciamma)
The Starling (Theodore Melfi)
The Story of My Wife (Ildikó Enyedi)
Three Stories (Nanni Moretti)
Violet (Justine Bateman)
The Worst Person in the World (Joachim Trier)
GALA PRESENTATIONS
Opening Night Film: Dear Evan Hansen (Stephen Chbosky)
Nigeria is an African nation ruled and ruined by corruption.
Nigerian government is corrupt, because majority of Nigerians are corrupt. They don't have conscience and they don't have shame as I documented in my book, "In the House of Dogs" published by Amazon . Dogs eat dogs in Nigeria without apologies and without regrets.
We cannot quantify the magnitude of the collateral damage that corruption has done to the commonwealth of Nigeria from the colonial government before the political independence of the country on October 1, 1960 to post colonial or neocolonial administrations under the camouflage of the pseudo democratic civilian rule and military rule of the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and the 2020s.
Political corruption is the most critical reason why Nigerians have never seen ten years of peace in the country since 1950 to date.
There has never been any free and fair election in Nigeria. What we have in Nigeria is not #democracy , but political idiocy. So, the case of the indicted senior police officer, Abba Kyari , the poster boy of the Nigerian police is not shocking to me.
The only public official who is not corrupt in Nigeria is the one who has not been caught.
From the local government to the Office of the President, elections have been rigged since the 1950s to date.
How can anyone expect democracy and good governance in a country ruled by corrupt and incompetent politicians who engaged in electoral malpractices to win elections into public office?
Can you make an omelette from rotten eggs?
What do you expect from lawmakers who have been lawbreakers during their political campaigns and elections?
There will always be disorder where corrupt and incompetent political leaders are in power.
Netflix is Improving the Quality of Nollywood To World Class Standards
#Netflix is actually helping #Nollywood to improve the quality of film and TV productions in the Nigerian film industry.
But MultiChoice is still accepting substandard movies from #Nollywood for the Africa Magic. They come cheap for as low as US$1200 per movie.
The producers say being seen on #DStv is an achievement and Netflix is their ultimate dream. Making it to Netflix is like winning an #Oscar to Nollywood filmmakers.
Netflix should only accept Nollywoood or #Kannywood movies with Dolby Atmos or DTS:X, because it would boost the quality of the sound in the film and TV productions.
Your sound begins from writing the screenplay: from the first draft and not the copy and paste soundtracks during the post production which is the common practice in Nollywood.
Using Dolby Vision is not rocket science.
If Nollywood wants to improve on the quality of productions to qualify for the official selections of top international film festivals and nominations for the Academy Awards, Nigerian filmmakers have to use the same benchmarks for international productions as their counterparts and peers in the leading film Industries in the world.
And I am still waiting for the first Nigerian movie with Dolby Vision.
"Barack Obama and the American Dream" on the election of the first African American President of the United States of America is the first book by a non American citizen on the historic presidential campaign, nomination and election of Senator Barack Obama on November 4, 2008 as the 44th President of the United States.
The book will be released soon after over 10 years homework on the selections of the thousands of comments and replies to news reports, debates and arguments on the Huffington Post, my blog on the Des Moines Register of Iowa and other news media during the presidential horse race between Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
It is a very important book on the contemporary political history of democracy in America in the 21st century.
"BLACKOUT": A New Nollywood Action Thriller About the Situation in Nigeria and the Way Forward
For a generation of Nigerian youths in search of heroes, Abbey Abimbola, aka Crackydon, the most popular African actor in Asia has answered the Clarion call of the nation for a New Nigeria with his new movie on the angst against the insecurity in Africa's most populous country in political crisis. And the youths are excited for the most anticipated Nollywood movie of the year.
In a bid to Improve Cross-Border Trade Across Africa, Link Commerce Partners with Cellulant To avail relevant digital payment options to online Shoppers
The partnership between Cellulant and Link Commerce aims to break barriers between local and international commerce by addressing payment needs
NAIROBI, Kenya, July 27, 2021/ -- Pan-African payments company, Cellulant (www.Cellulant.io), has partnered with Link Commerce, a turn-key B2B eCommerce platform, to avail relevant digital payment options to consumers in Africa; making it possible to purchase goods directly from global retailers online.
The number of online shoppers in Africa has surged annually by 18% since 2014, according to a report by UNCTAD. As of 2019, the number of digital buyers in Africa experienced an increase to 233 million. The number of e-commerce users in the continent was projected to grow significantly in the next few years, according to a Statista forecast. In 2021, there might be some 334 million online shoppers in Africa. By 2024, there could be roughly 478 million, about double the number in 2019.
The most significant contributor to this surge in e-commerce is the rapid growth in smartphone penetration over the past decade in Africa and the shift in consumer-spend behaviour. They are turning more and more to online shopping for their goods. The payments infrastructure has also evolved to offer payments solutions that enable more consumers across Africa to participate in online shopping without a bank account.
The partnership between Cellulant and Link Commerce aims to break barriers between local and international commerce by addressing payment needs and enabling African consumers to shop directly from their favourite global stores using local payment options.
Link Commerce CEO Chris Folayan stated, “With a global surge in online sales, and travel restrictions, finding the right partner to enable our customer the ability to pay locally and via mobile payment platforms is important to us. We are excited to be partnering with Cellulant as we grow cross-border trade across Africa. Removing payment and delivery barriers by ensuring everyone can pay for and receive products directly from US/UK retailers via Link Commerce powered apps.”
Commenting on the partnership, Cellulant’s Acting CEO, Akshay Grover, stated, “In Africa, there are over 150 different payment channels, and in most cases, very fragmented for the consumers. Therefore any global retailer looking to reach African consumers needs to prioritise local payments such as mobile money into their strategy. Through our partnership with Link Commerce, we can connect consumers in two-thirds of the countries in Africa with global retailers on a single payments platform. Consumers can shop from US or UK retailers or any global businesses of their choice and pay easily with digital methods already familiar to them.’’
eCommerce platforms can leverage the partnership between Cellulant and ink Commerce to power trade and eCommerce activity to last mile-consumers. Retail platforms such as DHL eShop and Mall for Africa are some of the eCommerce businesses benefitting from this partnership.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Cellulant.
About Cellulant:
Cellulant is a leading Pan-African financial technology company providing a one-stop digital payments platform. Cellulant uses technology to connect people and their resources, making it easier to do business across Africa. Cellulant provides a single digital payments platform - named Tingg- addressing the complex payments needs of businesses. Tingg makes it easy to collect and make payments across multiple payment methods in different currencies, with the best customer experience for any business looking to digitise their payments.
Today, Cellulant has an office presence in 18 African countries with a payment’s platform connecting thousands of businesses with 154 payment options across 35 countries. The platform powers payments for 220M consumers on a single inclusive network allowing for interoperability across Africa.
For further information contact:
Andrew Lala
media@cellulant.io
About Link Commerce:
Established in 2016, Link Commerce is an award-winning eCommerce platform that enables buyers in emerging markets to shop from US/UK retailers without any stress, hassle or worries with payment and delivery. The Link Commerce patented product ensures customers can pay for and receive products locally from over 250 US/UK stores. Link Commerce is pioneering how global cross-border e-commerce trade excels in emerging markets by providing easy ways to pay and last-mile delivery charges. Link Commerce operates across various markets in Africa, Latin America, Middle East, Caribbean Islands and Russia.
The research shows that 97% of transgender adults think that fertility should be discussed prior to transition (no surprises there) and 51% of transgender women wish they had preserved their fertility before transitioning.
Netflix Needs To Partner with MTN andd Airtel To Increase Subscribers in Nigeria
Nigeria has about 101 million mobile internet users on the GSM networks in Africa's most populous country with the largest economy. But the high cost of data for viewing videos online is making the leading video streaming services to be out of reach for majority of the teeming population who prefer to subscribe to cable TV services.
There are an estimated 15 million subscribers of cable TV networks in Nigeria with 10 millon of them shared by Multichoice and StarTimes.
MultiChoice streams satellite TV to between 4.5 million and 6 million Nigerian subscribers from the database reports of the cable TV subscribers in the country.
In Nigeria, satellite TV reception was the choice for 11.8 million households in 2019, a 23% increase compared to 2017, and a further 4.7 million in Ghana, up by 19% from 2017.
The study also highlighted that High Definition (HD) TV sets are becoming increasingly popular, already present in approximately 50% of Ghanaian and Nigerian TV homes.
Paying less than N3, 000 to subscribe to Netflix is not expensive, but including the costs for internet data have discouraged majority of people in Nigeria.
The following analysis on data usage is useful.
"Data consumption is different from speed. If you have a fast connection, that doesn't necessarily mean you use a lot of data per month. However, services like video streaming adapt to the available speed, so having a fast connection often does increase your data usage (and video quality), even if your habits don't change.
Streaming video:
Video uploads and downloads:
If you download a movie rather than streaming it or if you upload one to YouTube or Vimeo, the data consumption is similar, and it's always based on the full quality of the movie. If you make a video on your phone, you probably aren't creating HD quality or running for streaming video. The data consumption will depend on the quality of the video you receive. If you have a slow connection, most providers will adjust the quality so you won't have to pause for buffering too often. High-definition video can run as high in bandwidth consumption as 8 megabits (1 megabyte) a second. That's 60 megabytes a minute, if your connection is fast enough to handle it. A two-hour movie, at that rate, will consume 7.2 gigabytes. That's an upper bound, and usually it will be less, but a feature movie is a lot of data no matter what.
Video uploads and downloads:
If you download a movie rather than streaming it, or if you upload one to YouTube or Vimeo, the data consumption is similar, and it's always based on the full quality of the movie. If you make a video on your phone, you probably aren't creating HD quality or running for hours. Still, if you upload a lot, it will add up hours. Still, if you upload a lot, it will add up."
Netflix has partnerships with Telkom and Vodacom in South Africa and these deals have increased the subscriptions to the video streaming service. A similar partnership with MTN and Airtel in Nigeria will attract the millions of the middle class subscribers of the GSM networks in the country so include subscription to Netflix in their monthly budget.
I have created this digital art work for #NFTs I see as time capsules Non-fungible tokens are tokens of our digital civilization: the time capsules of our history for the benefit of every entity of humanity for our posterity. - Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima, Author of Uli Si Naka Chi
Image: ART IS A FIGURE OF SPEECH Uli Si Naka Chi series Original artwork created online by Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima.
I am an internationally exhibited Nigerian artist since 1983 when I represented Nigeria with my illustrations exhibited at two International book fairs in Japan and I was the youngest artist. My artworks were insured by the UNESCO for the exhibitions.
I was the curator of the first Arts Against AIDS Art Exhibition in Nigeria to celebrate the 1993 World AIDS Day at the National Museum and National Arts Theatre in Lagos. The artworks sold out, including my own paintings on canvas like the "Eruption of the Love Virus" and "Condomania".
I am also a prize winning writer, author, publisher and film/TV producer.
I have done two NFTs in my Uli Si Naka Chi series which are available for auction.
