Monday, June 2, 2014
Video - Iroko TV - Nigeria's fast growing online movie distribution service
Nigeria's movie industry has witnessed a meteoric rise over the past twenty years. The industry is now worth 5.1 billion dollars, following Nigeria's rebasing. Nollywood has a huge global-following, especially in Africa. But one startup, is changing the face of Nollywood with its online distribution service.
Related stories: Nollywood: most prolific movie machine
Video - Nigerian filmmaker Kunle Afolayan wants to transcend Nollywood
Chimamanda Adichie opposes western intervention in tackling Boko Haram
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the prize-winning Nigerian writer, has said she opposes Western military intervention against Boko Haram, the rebel group from the north of the country that recently kidnapped, and is still holding captive, more than 200 girls.She said that while Boko Haram’s actions had forced members of her own family to flee the area, a foreign attack on her homeland would be counterproductive. “Now we have American drones helping us in this forest and even the French have sent in people – shouldn’t they be fixing their own economy?” she said.
“We can solve our own damn problems,” she added.
At the same time Adichie, speaking at the Hay Festival, welcomed the social media campaign Bring Back Our Girls that has drawn the support of many in the US, including Michelle Obama. She pointed out that the Twitter hashtag #bringbackourgirls was started in Nigeria and not, as has been claimed, in America. “It was very much a grassroots social media Nigerian campaign. The fact that westerners are sharing in something started locally is fine with me.
“I recognise that the campaign made a difference. People paid attention and then the [Nigerian] government had to sit up a little bit.”
Adichie argued that local knowledge would be more useful in finding the girls than US drones. “I’m sure that there are hunters in that area who know that forest very well. Why haven’t they been used? Why aren’t we depending on them?
“What we need is a better equipped military, a better trained military: we don’t need Americans to send people in.” Stopping herself at this point, she joked: “This is my Nigerian nationalist rant”.
Adichie was speaking about her latest novel Americanah, which explores the experience of two Nigerian immigrants – one in America and one in Britain. The author, who grew up in Nigeria, said that when she moved to the country to study she adopted an American accent to try to fit in better. “When I went to the US, I remember feeling a sense of dislocation. It was ostensibly an English-speaking country, but I couldn’t understand what people were saying.”
After an American lady in the audience asked a question, Adichie assured her that she could only tease the country because she had so much affection for the place. “It’s like a rich uncle who doesn’t remember my name but gives me pocket money,” she said to audience laughter.
The Telegraph
Related stories: Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
Chimamanda Adichie's Americanah tops BBC top 10 books of 2013
Bomb blast at football match kills at least 14 in Nigeria
A bombing in a bar in Nigeria's northeast has killed at least 14 people and injured another 14 in the second attack targeting football fans in a fortnight.
The blast on Sunday hit the town of Mubi in Adamawa state, one of three in the northeast which has been under a state of emergency for more than a year as Nigeria's military has tried to crush Boko Haram's five-year uprising.
Al Jazeera's Ahmed Idriss said residents in Mubi town had told him dozens were killed in the attack.
"The police are confirming, so far, 14 people have died in the blast but locals are telling us at least 40 people may have died in that attack at the moment," our reporter said from Abuja.
The bomb exploded around 6.30pm (1730 GMT) in Gavan in the Mubi area of Adamawa and reportedly targeted fans who were watching a local club match.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Football fans targeted again
Last week a botched suicide bombing that was meant to target an open air viewing of a football match in the central Nigerian city of Jos killed three people
Adamawa has been hit by far fewer Boko Haram attacks than other parts of the northeast, but the area was the site of a gruesome October 2012 massacre at a post-secondary technical college.
Scores of students were killed in their dorms, including many whose throats were slit.
Mubi is just a few kilometres from Nigeria's border with Cameroon and near the area where two Italian priests and a Canadian nun were seized by suspected Boko Haram gunmen in April.
The three were released earlier on Sunday and flown out on board a military aircraft from the town of Maroua, heading for the Cameroon capital.
Boko Haram has carried out scores of attacks on targets it says are a product of Western influence, including sports venues and schools teaching a secular curriculum.
The group has killed thousands during its battle against the government since 2009, but the conflict has received unprecedented global attention over the last six weeks following the group's mass kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls.
The girls were seized on April 14 from Chibok in Borno state, which shares a border with Adamawa.
Nigeria's response to the kidnapping has been fiercely criticised as inept and the crisis has piled intense pressure on President Goodluck Jonathan's government to do more to end the uprising.
Aljazeera
Related stories: Video - Boko Haram raid on military base leaves 24 dead
Market attack leaves 20 dead in Maiduguri, Nigeria
The blast on Sunday hit the town of Mubi in Adamawa state, one of three in the northeast which has been under a state of emergency for more than a year as Nigeria's military has tried to crush Boko Haram's five-year uprising.
Al Jazeera's Ahmed Idriss said residents in Mubi town had told him dozens were killed in the attack.
"The police are confirming, so far, 14 people have died in the blast but locals are telling us at least 40 people may have died in that attack at the moment," our reporter said from Abuja.
The bomb exploded around 6.30pm (1730 GMT) in Gavan in the Mubi area of Adamawa and reportedly targeted fans who were watching a local club match.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Football fans targeted again
Last week a botched suicide bombing that was meant to target an open air viewing of a football match in the central Nigerian city of Jos killed three people
Adamawa has been hit by far fewer Boko Haram attacks than other parts of the northeast, but the area was the site of a gruesome October 2012 massacre at a post-secondary technical college.
Scores of students were killed in their dorms, including many whose throats were slit.
Mubi is just a few kilometres from Nigeria's border with Cameroon and near the area where two Italian priests and a Canadian nun were seized by suspected Boko Haram gunmen in April.
The three were released earlier on Sunday and flown out on board a military aircraft from the town of Maroua, heading for the Cameroon capital.
Boko Haram has carried out scores of attacks on targets it says are a product of Western influence, including sports venues and schools teaching a secular curriculum.
The group has killed thousands during its battle against the government since 2009, but the conflict has received unprecedented global attention over the last six weeks following the group's mass kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls.
The girls were seized on April 14 from Chibok in Borno state, which shares a border with Adamawa.
Nigeria's response to the kidnapping has been fiercely criticised as inept and the crisis has piled intense pressure on President Goodluck Jonathan's government to do more to end the uprising.
Aljazeera
Related stories: Video - Boko Haram raid on military base leaves 24 dead
Market attack leaves 20 dead in Maiduguri, Nigeria
Friday, May 30, 2014
Video - President Goodluck Jonathan declares 'total war' on Boko Haram
Nigeria's president says he will crush Boko Haram, and rid the country of what he calls terrorists. In his annual "Democracy Day" address, Goodluck Jonathan insisted his government is doing all it can to rescue more than 200 girls abducted by the group.
Related stories: Four kidnapped schoolgirls escape from Boko Haram
Video - The state of Nigerian governance and Boko Haram
Western Union launches online service in Nigeria
World’s leading money transfer company, Western Union Co. (WU) has initiated its online service – www.WesternUnion.ng – in Nigeria with the debut of its online site.
This is Western Union’s first inward-remittance website across the globe. The service was launched with support from Interswitch Limited.
The website will enable Nigerians to move funds into a bank account with Guaranty Trust Bank, Skye Bank, Stanbic IBTC Bank and Wema Bank.
Western Union already has a significant presence in Nigeria and provides mobile money remittance service in the region via eTranzact.
Western Union perceives Nigeria as an attractive market opportunity since the country topped the list of African countries for diaspora remittances due to the huge remittance it receives. As per data from World Bank, Nigeria received $21 billion in funds last year. Going forward, this region is expected to witness further growth in remittance.
Western Union is increasing its investments in high-growth electronic channels to build a world-class customer experience. These efforts are propelling rapid growth in digital, account-based money transfer, and mobile banking. Online, westernunion.com money transfer transactions grew more than 40% in 2013, while transactions for electronic account-based money transfer through banks surged over 50%.
Management is targeting $500 million in revenues from the digital business (westernunion.com/mobile) by 2015, which implies a 60% CAGR revenue growth through 2015.
Another money transfer company MoneyGram International Inc. (MGI) also provides services in Nigeria.
Western Union currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
However, other players such as Xoom Corp. (XOOM) with a Zacks Rank # 1 (Strong Buy) and Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. (FIS) with a Zacks Rank # 2 (Buy) are worth considering.
ZACKS
Related story: Bitcoin interest grows in Nigeria
This is Western Union’s first inward-remittance website across the globe. The service was launched with support from Interswitch Limited.
The website will enable Nigerians to move funds into a bank account with Guaranty Trust Bank, Skye Bank, Stanbic IBTC Bank and Wema Bank.
Western Union already has a significant presence in Nigeria and provides mobile money remittance service in the region via eTranzact.
Western Union perceives Nigeria as an attractive market opportunity since the country topped the list of African countries for diaspora remittances due to the huge remittance it receives. As per data from World Bank, Nigeria received $21 billion in funds last year. Going forward, this region is expected to witness further growth in remittance.
Western Union is increasing its investments in high-growth electronic channels to build a world-class customer experience. These efforts are propelling rapid growth in digital, account-based money transfer, and mobile banking. Online, westernunion.com money transfer transactions grew more than 40% in 2013, while transactions for electronic account-based money transfer through banks surged over 50%.
Management is targeting $500 million in revenues from the digital business (westernunion.com/mobile) by 2015, which implies a 60% CAGR revenue growth through 2015.
Another money transfer company MoneyGram International Inc. (MGI) also provides services in Nigeria.
Western Union currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
However, other players such as Xoom Corp. (XOOM) with a Zacks Rank # 1 (Strong Buy) and Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. (FIS) with a Zacks Rank # 2 (Buy) are worth considering.
ZACKS
Related story: Bitcoin interest grows in Nigeria
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