A Nigerian entrepreneur has taken home the top prize at the Jack Ma Foundation's first annual prize for African businesses.
Temie Giwa-Tubosun walked away with the top $250,000 cash prize from the $1 million available from the Africa Netpreneur Prize Initiative (ANPI), started by Chinese investor Jack Ma.
The organization says it will award a $1m grant to 10 African entrepreneurs every year for the next 10 years.
Giwa-Tubosun is the founder and CEO of LifeBank, a Lagos-based blood and oxygen delivery company that connects registered blood banks to hospitals and patients in need of urgent blood supplies.
She said: "The Africa Netpreneur Prize will give me the resources to grow LifeBank and expand our presence in Nigeria and throughout the rest of Africa. I look forward to continuing my journey to solve problems and make a significant impact on the future of Africa."
Drone delivery of blood
Giwa-Tubosun also announced at the 'African Business Heroes' event held in Accra,Ghana on Saturday that LifeBank will start delivering blood through Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), known as drones.
She said the decision to add drones to their mobility fleet was to get blood to patients in places that are hard to reach.
At the event, Giwa-Tubosun spoke about LifeBank's findings while researching the best situations to use drones for blood delivery.
"After running our operations for three years we knew that there were some patients we could not reach on time. Like areas where there are bandits on the road so we need to fly," she told CNN.
According to her, the drones will only supply blood in emergency situations where patients are hard to reach.
An Ethiopian partnership
In October, in partnership with the Information Network Security Agency (INSA), the Ethiopian government agency tasked with exploring technology, the LifeBank team successfully did a test run of drone delivery in Ethiopia.
"What we did in Ethiopia... was like a research project to show that we can deliver these critical supplies [blood]. We did that for a couple of weeks and it was successful," Giwa-Tubosun said.
The drones are programmed to automatically pick up samples from blood banks and deliver to laboratories or hospitals without any form of human control.
Giwa-Tubosun says beyond Ethiopia, LifeBank's drone delivery services will be tested and launched in other regions including Nigeria.
"We have the results of the success, and we're going to do the same in another country, perhaps Nigeria," she said.
Nigeria's blood deficit
Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, needs up to 1.8 million units of blood every year, but the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) collects only about 66,000 units per year, leaving a deficit of more than 1.7million pints of blood, according to the country's health ministry.
Through their real-time delivery of blood using motorcycles and boats, LifeBank is trying to improve the numbers in the West African country.
Their dispatch riders pick up specified units of blood from blood banks, storing it in their motorbike's cold chain transport box and delivering to the required hospitals quickly, a challenge in gridlocked Lagos.
10,000 applications
Around 10,000 applicants from 50 African countries were whittled down to just 10 for the "Africa's Business Heroes," finale event, held Saturday in Accra, Ghana.
The final 10 pitched their businesses to four judges, including Ma, Zimbabwean businessman Strive Masiyiwa, Joe Tsai, Vice Chairman Alibaba Group and banking boss Ibukun Awosika.
In second and third place were Egyptian Omar Sakr, founder and CEO, Nawah-Scientific and Christelle Kwizera, founder, Water Access Rwanda who were awarded $150,000 and $100,000 each.
The remaining finalists each walked away with $65,000 for their businesses.
By Aisha Salaudeen and Stephanie Busari
CNN
Monday, November 18, 2019
Video - Nigeria's Oscar disqualification sees push for films in native languages
Nigeria's Oscar Committee is urging Nigerian filmmakers to use more native languages in their productions. This, after the U.S. Academy Awards disqualified a Nigerian entry in the International Feature Film category because the movie used too much English. While some in Nigeria’s Hollywood – known as Nollywood -- support the idea of more native languages in films, others argue that non-English films limit their audience reach. Timothy Obiezu reports from Abuja.
Thursday, November 14, 2019
Video - Nigerian artist creatively stitches to create images
Thread Painting originated in the 19th century. The artist relies on a combination of stitches and colors to produce a work that leaves an impressionistic feel. Although it's not a popular art form, Nigeria's Emmanuel Eweje has made a career out of it. With over a decade of experience, he is making waves both as an exhibitor and a trainer.
Former Nigeria football player guilty of match-fixing in Sweden
The Court of Appeal in Stockholm said in a release on Wednesday that it was clear that Etuhu and an unnamed former player tried to influence AIK keeper Kyriakos "Kenny" Stamatopoulos to fix a match in Sweden's top division in 2017.
Etuhu, who played for several English clubs including Manchester City, Sunderland, Preston, Blackburn and Fulham, escaped a jail sentence but was instead fined and sentenced to serve probation, without further details being made public.
The 37-year-old, who left AIK Solna in 2016, says he will be appealing against the ruling at the Supreme Court.
The court said that "the content of what the men submitted to the player (Stamatopoulos) was so clear that it should be considered a criminal offer of bribe."
Etuhu had intially been acquitted by a court last year but that was appealed by prosecutor Johan Lindmark, who told local Swedish newspaper Expressen that he was satisfied with Wednesday's outcome.
"It was with satisfaction that I received the verdict today," Lindmark said.
"I had appealed on the grounds that I thought the court of law would change and was not surprised when I saw the verdict."
Etuhu played 20 times for the Super Eagles including twice at the Africa Cup of Nations in 2008 and 2010 as well as the World Cup in South Africa.
By Simon Reeves
BBC
Nigeria security agency denies shooting supporters of detained activist
Nigeria's state security agency on Wednesday denied that its officers opened fire on campaigners calling for the release of a Nigerian activist and former presidential candidate who remains in detention despite having been granted bail.
Omoyele Sowore, who ran for president as a minor candidate in the February election in which former military ruler President Muhammadu Buhari secured a second term in office, was arrested in August for calling for a revolution.
In September Sowore pleaded not guilty to charges of treason, money laundering and harassing the president. He was granted bail on Oct. 4 but he has not been released because the Department for State Security (DSS) says the conditions have not been met.
Supporters of Sowore, who founded Nigerian online news organization Sahara Reporters, staged a protest at DSS headquarters in the capital, Abuja, on Wednesday during which they said the security agency's officers opened fire on them.
But the claims were denied by the DSS.
"Despite serial and unwarranted provocations, the Service, as a professional and responsible Organization, did not shoot at the so-called protesters," the DSS said in a statement.
Sowore's continued detention has prompted some to criticize Buhari over his administration's record on human rights, particularly a lethal crackdown on followers of a Shi'ite leader who has been detained by the government since 2015 without a trial.
Nigerian campaign groups, including Concerned Nigerians Group and the Coalition in Defence of Nigerians Democracy & Constitution, issued a statement in which they said "violent attacks" on protesters at DSS headquarters show that Buhari "is running a dictatorship again".
Buhari was Nigeria's head of state between December 1983 and August 1985, after taking power in a military coup. He was also replaced by the military.
Sowore was granted bail so long as a number of conditions were met including the provision of 100 million naira ($277,777) with two sureties.
The DSS, in its statement, said it reiterated its "avowed readiness to release Sowore" once the people who provided surety for him had presented themselves.
Femi Falana, a lawyer representing Sowore, on Wednesday called on the DSS to release his client from "illegal custody".
He accused the DSS of "aggravating the felony of contempt of court by asking sureties who had been verified by the trial court to report in its office for an illegal verification".
(Reporting by Camillus Eboh; Additional reporting by Abraham Achirga; Writing by Alexis Akwagyiram; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
Reuters
Omoyele Sowore, who ran for president as a minor candidate in the February election in which former military ruler President Muhammadu Buhari secured a second term in office, was arrested in August for calling for a revolution.
In September Sowore pleaded not guilty to charges of treason, money laundering and harassing the president. He was granted bail on Oct. 4 but he has not been released because the Department for State Security (DSS) says the conditions have not been met.
Supporters of Sowore, who founded Nigerian online news organization Sahara Reporters, staged a protest at DSS headquarters in the capital, Abuja, on Wednesday during which they said the security agency's officers opened fire on them.
But the claims were denied by the DSS.
"Despite serial and unwarranted provocations, the Service, as a professional and responsible Organization, did not shoot at the so-called protesters," the DSS said in a statement.
Sowore's continued detention has prompted some to criticize Buhari over his administration's record on human rights, particularly a lethal crackdown on followers of a Shi'ite leader who has been detained by the government since 2015 without a trial.
Nigerian campaign groups, including Concerned Nigerians Group and the Coalition in Defence of Nigerians Democracy & Constitution, issued a statement in which they said "violent attacks" on protesters at DSS headquarters show that Buhari "is running a dictatorship again".
Buhari was Nigeria's head of state between December 1983 and August 1985, after taking power in a military coup. He was also replaced by the military.
Sowore was granted bail so long as a number of conditions were met including the provision of 100 million naira ($277,777) with two sureties.
The DSS, in its statement, said it reiterated its "avowed readiness to release Sowore" once the people who provided surety for him had presented themselves.
Femi Falana, a lawyer representing Sowore, on Wednesday called on the DSS to release his client from "illegal custody".
He accused the DSS of "aggravating the felony of contempt of court by asking sureties who had been verified by the trial court to report in its office for an illegal verification".
(Reporting by Camillus Eboh; Additional reporting by Abraham Achirga; Writing by Alexis Akwagyiram; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
Reuters
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