News
Africa Fintech Foundry Unveils ‘The Big Tech Show’
Africa Fintech Foundry (AFF), an initiative that aims to nurture, fund, and accelerate the growth of Tech startups in Africa has launch a television show, ‘The Big Tech Show’.
The television documentary show launched in collaboration with Accelerate TV is aimed at exposing innovators and creating awareness on how African start-ups are using technology to solve problems.
Africa Fintech Foundry (AFF) is a pan-African initiative focused on creating new opportunities in Africa by providing a platform designed to inspire and challenge African innovators and entrepreneurs.
Speaking at the launch of the show in Lagos, Ade Bajomo, executive director of technology and operations, Access Bank, said that The Big Tech Show is basically to showcase the best that Africa have got. “We are building an ecosystem and that ecosystem is at the infancy stage as such we have to expose it.
“Show how innovators are throwing up the innovations, show how they are solving the problems. Now nerds rule the world because they are solving difficult problems. This is part of celebrating Africa and this programme goes around to Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria,” he said.
According to him, “the role of AFF is basically to stay out there and look at the entire ecosystem across Nigeria and Africa as a whole and look for innovators across all fields and see how we can partner to develop solutions that can solve real deep problems.
“It can be for financial services, Agrictech, Insurtech or in solving social responsibility issue. It is about bringing that collaboration, that is why AFF is set up to find those Innovators, starts up, creative people fuse their ideas together and bring it back into the ecosystem.
“There are two things that changed the narrative in Nigeria, first one is Nollywood without support from anywhere became third in the world. The second is Afrobeat and the third one is developing and that is what we are doing here.
“The role of AFF is also to build that ecosystem, articulate all the issues in the ecosystem make them accessible, get more people to join the ecosystem and promote the ecosystem to fully develop so that Africa becomes the hub of digital innovation and for us to be solving our own problems in the fourth, fifth and six industrial revolution across the world”.
Uzoma Dozie, chief executive officer, Sparkle, described The Big Tech Show initiative as a very noble initiative. “What AFF is trying to do is to expo and create awareness of how many countries across Africa are trying to leverage on technology to make life better for their own people.
“Secondly, we need African organisations doing expose’ of what Africans are doing, you can’t expect Americans or Europeans to be doing it, let us take control of the narratives. That is exactly what The Big Tech Show is doing here. I think it is wonderful,” he stated.
On Impact of Fintech in Africa, Dozie said that Africa has not started in exploring Fintech. “They will always say that the biggest example of Fintech impact is in Nairobi with M-pesa. Where they used mobile money to effect change on how people transfer and changed their life.
“In Nigeria, we have seen that as well, but we haven’t talked about it enough. We need to do much more, Nigeria is a much bigger country with over 200 million people though with infrastructure challenges. We have education, health and Agriculture. These are areas where technology can play a role.
“From financial perspective Nigeria has done very well in FinTech, we have better mobile financial Apps than you can find in Europe but we need to use it to impact more life to go down on the pyramid. We are doing well, we have great creativity and entrepreneurship, we just need more collaboration between the private sector, regulators and legislatures for us to now build these skills. We need a common denominator. Right now, we are all working in silos.
“This kind of Big Tech Show would create that awareness among people in different stakeholder’s group. When you see what other countries are doing you ask yourself how come we are not doing this in Nigeria but we are actually investing in technology but how come it is not reaching the man on the street. What do we need to do? That might force us to come together to collaborate and find solution.
Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, cofounder, general partner – Future Africa, said that a lot of younger entrepreneurs need an encouragement and mentorship. “This show is going to help to inspire them so that they can see how people who did it before did it perhaps they will have an opportunity to follow in their steps.
“It is interesting that the bankers have decided to tell the stories of these entrepreneurs through collaboration between AFF and Accelerate TV,” he noted.
News
Legit.ng, Shade of Life Foundation Partner to Advance Autism Awareness in Nigeria
Legit.ng recently joined forces with the Shade of Life Foundation to become a voice of autism, and drive advocacy for improved media support during Autism Awareness Month.
Conversations around media support exploration was led by Joseph Omotayo, head of Department for Human Interest Stories at Legit.ng, and Dr. Eziafakaku Nwokolo, founder and CEO of the Shade of Life Foundation,
This partnership is a response to the concerns raised by organizations like the Shade of Life Foundation about the level of support received from the media in discussing autism as a disability.
While other disabilities may receive attention, autism, with its critical developmental implications often lacks adequate representation in mainstream media.
Recognizing the importance of addressing these concerns, Legit.ng took proactive steps by integrating itself into the essence of autism awareness.
It facilitated a one-hour workshop with Dr. Nwokolo, the founder of the foundation, to deepen our understanding of autism, its various spectrums, and the language boundaries associated with it.
Other steps we took in advocating autism awareness in the media, can be seen in our attached press release.
Legit.ng believes that by amplifying the voices of autism and advocating for better media representation, we can contribute to creating a more inclusive and accepting society for all.
News
As Nigeria Struggle, Tanzania Turns off Power Plants Due to Excess Supply
While 85 per cent of Nigeria is in darkness, Tanzania, an African country has shut down five hydroelectric stations in a bid to reduce excess electricity in the national grid.
Kassim Majaliwa, prime minister, Tanzania, has said the main plant, Mwalimu Nyerere Hydroelectric Station, alone generated enough electricity to power major cities, including Dar es Salaam, the country’s commercial hub.
It is the first time Tanzania, which suffers chronic power shortages, has closed hydroelectric stations due to excess production.
“We have turned off all these stations because the demand is low and the electricity production is too much, we have no allocation now,” an official from state-run power company, Tanesco, said.
The 2,115MW Julius Nyerere Hydropower Dam is said to be almost filled with water following heavy rains that started early this year.
Meanwhile, while the country has an installed capacity of 1,938MW and the grid installed capacity of 1,899MW, Nigeria which has an installed capacity of 13,000MW is struggling to electrify 85 per cent of its electricity consumers.
News
President Tinubu Appoints Jim Ovia as Student Loan Fund Chairman
President Bola Tinubu has approved the appointment of Jim Ovia, renowned banker and businessman, as the Chairman, Board of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund.
Ovia’s appointment is contained in a State House statement titled, ‘President Tinubu appoints Jim Ovia as Chairman of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund,’ and issued on Friday by Ajuri Ngelale, special adviser to the President, Media & Publicity.
The statement noted that “Ovia is the founder of one of Nigeria’s leading banks and a respected business leader, with a surfeit of efforts and benefaction towards nurturing and empowering young Nigerians.
“He is an alumnus of Harvard Business School and holds a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Louisiana.”
The National Student Loan Programme is a pivotal intervention that seeks to guarantee sustainable higher education and functional skill development for all Nigerian students and youths.
The Nigerian Education Loan Fund, the implementing institution of this innovation, demands excellence and Nigerians of the finest professional ilk to guide and manage.
“The President believes Mr. Ovia will bring his immense wealth of experience and professional stature to this role to advance the all-important vision of ensuring that no Nigerian student suffers a capricious end to their pursuit of higher education over a lack of funds,” the statement partly read.
Ovia’s appointment will also ensure “that Nigerian youths, irrespective of who they are, have access to higher education and skills that will make them productive members of society and core contributors to the knowledge-based global economy of this century.”
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