This agricultural enterprise is helping Nigerian farmers expand their business

In 2015, farmer Sule Yohana joined Babban Gona, a social enterprise organization with a focus on providing expansion services to smallholder farmers in Nigeria.

Babban Gona which means 'Great farm' in Hausa language, spoken in West Africa, provides services such as loans, agribusiness training, and provision of storage facilities for subsistence farmers in rural communities.

Yohana, whose farm is in Kaduna state in northern Nigeria, told CNN that since he joined the enterprise as a member he has been able to grow his maize farm from two hectares of land to four.
A hectare of farmland is about the size of the average football field.

"They (Babban Gona) taught me how to farm better, they taught me the best way to store my maize and they supplied me with fertilizers and pesticides," he said.

Promoting Agriculture

Farmers like Yohana make up one of the largest sectors of the Nigerian economy as agriculture contributes 21.9% of the country's overall gross domestic product, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Founder of Babban Gona, Kola Masha says the enterprise was established in 2012 to promote agriculture and reduce the rate of unemployment in the country.

Out of a population of 202 million people, 39 million in Nigeria were unemployed, according to a 2018 report by the NBS.

Masha told CNN that Babban Gona's objective is to bring down the unemployment numbers by expanding crop production in rural communities, thereby creating room for more jobs in the country.

"We set a goal for ourselves that we will create around 10 million jobs by 2030 ... We firmly believe that agriculture is Nigeria's job-creation engine because it is massive, labor-intensive, and has tremendous growth potential," he said.

Babban Gona, which specializes in supporting maize farming is present in six Nigerian states and has so far provided its 100,000 farmer members with different farming-related services to improve their business.

One of the services offered is the provision of storage facilities for farmers during harvest season. Due to insufficient storage facilities for community-level farmers, a lot of farm produce is often wasted.

Investing in spaces to store maize ensures that farmers don't lose their produce and by extension, their income.

"We invested in over 60,000 tonnes of storage where the farmers can store their harvest," Masha said.

Farmer training 

Babban Gona also trains all its farmer members on some of the best farming techniques to improve their production of maize.

The company has a large number of field agents across small communities in northern Nigeria. These agents specialize in teaching water retention, soil analysis, seed planting, and sustainable farming.

Once a farmer joins Babban Gona, he automatically becomes eligible for this training.
Masha says anybody can join as a farmer member and that some people apply to become a part of Babban Gona on their own.

"Our team is actively out there at the grassroots level engaging with tens of thousands of farmers to get them to join. So, it is really a community effort, going from village to village, sharing with people about the potential of how Babban Gona can help," he explained.

When a farmer indicates interest in joining, they are subjected to a psychometric test where they are evaluated based on their maize production skills, personality traits, job potential, and abilities.
Those who pass become member farmers.

Yohana, who has been a Babban Gona member for about five years says he has been able to increase his net income as a result of the incentives provided by the enterprise.

"You know I used to plant one maize seed per hole but during my training with Babban Gona, I was taught that I could plant more than one seed with appropriate spacing," he explained.
He said he used to harvest only 40 bags of maize during harvest season, but he now harvests up to 200 bags.

Farmer members like Yohana are offered access to credit for their business and information on the best ways to market and distribute their products, according to Babban Gona founder, Masha.
"We help them to start thinking about turning their farm into a large business, to start making the necessary investments that will make their farms profitable," he told CNN.

Funded by financial institutions

The farmers are charged a small margin for the different services provided to them.
And according to Masha, the social enterprise is funded by leading financial institutions and governments such as the Nigerian Sovereign Wealth Fund, the German government, the Entrepreneurial Development Bank, among others.

Through the funding received, Babban Gona has been able to provide credit facilities for 55,000 farmers and aims to reach a million more by 2025.

CNN

Why Nigerians are muting their mothers on WhatsApp

In our series of letters from African writers, Nigerian novelist Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani says children are now having to police their credulous parents on WhatsApp.

Just a few years ago, local comedians had a field day with jokes about elderly Nigerian mothers and their nonchalant attitudes towards their mobile phones.

They needed their children's assistance to type and send text messages or log in to their accounts and read emails.

And their frequent excuse for missed calls was: "My phone was in my handbag."

These days, the jokes have upgraded to Nigerian mothers and their infatuation with WhatsApp, the most popular messaging app in Africa.

Nigerian comedians like Maraji have been making skits about them.

"My mother spends her entire morning on WhatsApp," 39-year-old Udo, whose home is in Lagos, told me.

"Throughout while she's having her breakfast and drinking her tea, she's checking people's status updates and watching videos."
'Relevant messages'

Unlike Twitter and Instagram, WhatsApp can work even when internet connections are iffy, as is often the case in many parts of Nigeria.

And it requires no profiles or passwords, so the generation that mostly retired from active life before access to the internet became common in Nigeria finds it easy to use. In fact, it is their internet.

A common complaint among younger Nigerians is the number and nature of WhatsApp messages they receive from their mothers.

"You just wake up in the morning and you see 10 videos from your mother," 41-year-old Ihuoma, who lives in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, told me.

"And each one begins with: 'You must watch this!' 'This will help somebody!' Those are always the opening lines."

Her 76-year-old mother, Patty, told me that all the messages she forwards are "relevant".

"I don't send frivolous messages at all," she said.

"Why I send those things to my children, it is a form of education, lifting up of minds, sharing knowledge, experiences. I consider it a sort of fellowship, sharing with my children."

Ihuoma has since muted her mother's WhatsApp account and rarely opens her messages.

For many Nigerian mothers, the ability to broadcast ready-made messages via WhatsApp is like a superpower.

It enables them to transmit unsolicited prayers, advice and opinions.

One woman who complained on Twitter about her mother putting onions in the corner of every room in the house - touted on WhatsApp as a way to absorb toxins - received replies saying their mothers had also followed the erroneous advice.

"In our family group, my mother was always forwarding me and my siblings different health suggestions, concoctions to mix and drink," said Udo.

"When I pointed out to her that some of them are questionable, she replied: 'You never know, just try it and see.'"

Her mother also forwarded gory videos of kidnap victims and crime scenes, insisting that her children needed to see these to be aware and beware.

"That's when I left the family group and felt I could not do this any more," Udo said.

"My brother blocked her, which hurt her a lot. But she wouldn't listen. She keeps forwarding."
Thongs, cancer and other fanciful warnings

A number of people told me that they also had blocked their mothers on WhatsApp but did not want to let them know.

"I was once involved in an online debate about this," Ihuoma said.

"Some people were of the opinion that they wanted to block their mothers but couldn't get themselves to do that to someone who had carried them in the womb for nine months."

They were tired of the advice and cautions, mostly from conservative or religious mothers who have always had a problem with their more liberal-minded children's lifestyles.

Warnings, for example, signed by unknown medical experts, explaining how wearing thongs can cause cancer and how tight skirts can lead to heart attacks.

And of the most implausible stories:

. People told me of their mothers who are convinced that Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari died long ago and had since been replaced by a body double from Sudan, known as "Jubril".

. That Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a lion into the streets of Moscow to prevent people from flouting the coronavirus lockdowns.

. That Queen Elizabeth has been pictured around the UK wearing face masks that are the same bright colours as her clothes, shoes and handbags.

All stories accompanied by videos and photos.

Affordable internet access became common in Nigeria just a few years ago, so this generation of elderly Nigerians was hardly exposed to the wonders of Photoshop and the ingenuity of idle minds that invent stories just for fun and clicks.

The Wuhan 'dragon'

And so, they tend to believe most information they come across, especially when there is visual "evidence".

"My mother sent me and my siblings a video of a dragon-like creature fleeing towards the sky," said 40-year-old Grace, who lives in Lagos.

"She said we should see, that coronavirus was finally leaving the earth."

Grace was shocked that her well-educated, 76-year-old mother could actually believe that the coronavirus was captured on camera, finally fleeing the Chinese city of Wuhan through the clouds and into the sky.

"She asked me how I knew that it wasn't true and I said: 'Mummy, the coronavirus is not a flying reptile!'

"She acknowledged that I was right and we just kind of laughed over it."

Hardly any of the ongoing efforts here to combat fake news and improve digital literacy focus on older Nigerians - and so the burden must continue to rest on younger family members like Grace to correct and enlighten their parents.

But, sometimes, even this is impossible.

"Sometimes when I correct her, my mother tells me that I'm being rude," said Udo. "She complains that I'm being insulting."

BBC

Nigerian Reggae Star Majek Fashek Dies at 57

Beloved Nigerian reggae star Majek Fashek has died at age 57.

The singer's manager, Omenka Uzoma, told the BBC that Fashek (born Majekodunmi Fasheke), died in his sleep in New York. In an Instagram video, Uzoma reconfirmed the news, praising Fashek for all he did for Nigeria.

Singer/songwriter Fashek was born in the Edo state of Benin in 1963 and rose to prominence in 1988 when he released his solo debut, Prisoner of Conscience (his backing band was known as the Prisoners of Conscience), which included the award-winning single "Send Down the Rain."

With a high, quivering voice that drew comparisons to reggae great Bob Marley, and a conscious vibe in keeping with Marley's push to uplift, Fashek quickly gained a reputation as a voice of righteousness.

He furthered that image with the dancehall-spiked anti-apartheid song "Free Africa, Free Mandela," from his 1989 album I&I Experience. He achieved a rare cross-over success in the United States in 1991, when he signed with Interscope Records and released the Little Steven Van Zandt-produced breakthrough Spirit of Love. That effort included his biggest international hit, "So Long Too Long," an uplifting anthem that opened with the exhortation, "Arise from your sleep Africa/ Arise from your sleep America/ There's work to be done Africa."

The song, which Fashek performed on tour while opening for Tracy Chapman and on The Late Show with David Letterman, directly paid homage to Marley's legacy of activist lyricism with lines such as, "Remember, remember, Marcus Garvey/ Who had a dream for you Africa/ Remember, remember, Martin Luther King/ Who had a dream for you America/ They say you are black, they say you are brown/ They say dem white, they say you are brown/ But only the Angels of God is white now/ Only the Angels of God is white."

In 2016, Fashek wrote the song "We Are Not Afraid," which was the soundtrack to an all-star fundraiser video for victims of religious and political violence around the world directed by photographer Bob Gruen that featured more than 200 artists, including Keith Richards, Robert Plant, Bruce Springsteen, Yoko Ono, Robert DeNiro, Sting, Patti Smith, Dr. Jane Goodall, Iggy Pop, Peter Gabriel, Jackson Browne, Chuck D,Joe Walsh, Bonnie Raitt, Darlene Love, Debbie Harry, Dion, Elvis Costello, Grandmaster Flash, Jeff Tweedy and Susan Sarandon, among others.

At press time the cause of Fashek's death was not released.

Nigerian singer Burna Boy paid tribute to one of his biggest influences, writing, "The lyrics to his song 'So Long, Too Long' remain true as a wake up call to Africans still today."

By Gil Kaufman

Billboard

Nigeria’s Insurers Given Another Year to Find Fresh Capital

Nigeria’s National Insurance Commission gave underwriters an additional year to recapitalize as companies deal with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

The industry recapitalization program scheduled to end in 2020 must now be completed by September 2021, the agency said in emailed statement.

“The incidences of Covid-19 pandemic have made it difficult to proceed with the Dec. 31, 2020 recapitalization deadline,” it said. Following the extension , underwriters are expected to meet at least half of the capital requirements by year-end, the regulator said.

Nigerian authorities last year asked insurers wanting to combine life and property and casualty businesses to raise their capital to 18 billion naira ($46 million) from 5 billion naira, with the minimum for property and casualty businesses increased to 10 billion naira from 3 billion naira. The requirement for life insurance is 8 billion naira, versus 2 billion naira, and that for reinsurance is 20 billion naira, compared with 10 billion naira.

By Emele Onu

Bloomberg

Nigeria's Nollywood gets creative in response to Covid-19

As coronavirus closed businesses around the world and forced billions to stay home, Nigerian director Obi Emelonye came up with an innovative way to keep filming.

Inspired by his wife's teleconferencing calls from their isolation in Britain, he wrote and put together a short feature about a couple separated between London and Lagos.

There was just one day for rehearsals and two for filming, and relatives shot the actors on mobile phones in their homes on two continents.

"I said to myself, 'What if I shoot a film remotely? I can direct my actors and produce it from home, and the cost is zero," the well-known 53-year-old director told AFP.

"I wanted to show young people that despite the countless difficulties of our profession, despite the coronavirus, you can make a film without funding, without even a real camera."

Inventiveness has always been a hallmark of Nigeria's Nollywood -- the second most prolific film industry on the planet -- as it has risen from shaky homemade movies to slickly-produced blockbusters.

But now, in the face of the coronavirus crisis that has seen social distancing rules shut down shoots and cinemas closed, the sector has needed that spirit more than ever.

"We are an endangered species, we have to be innovative and to push the boundaries," said Emelonye, whose short "Heart 2 Heart" was released for free on YouTube last month.

"Things are very bad? You can make them better!"

'Difficult times'

The Nigerian film industry is riddled with contradictions.

On the surface are the red carpets, glitz and glamorous stars with millions of Instagram followers.

But underneath, much of the sector is poorly-funded, salaries are miserly and rampant piracy robs it of crucial revenues.

The arrival of the virus has dealt a major blow just as producers try to focus on higher-quality movies, cinema audiences grow and giants like Netflix push to tap into the country of 200 million, the most populous in Africa.

Moses Babatope watched in dismay as a government order to close saw income evaporate over the past three months at the Filmhouse, a cinema chain he co-founded in 2012.

"We've been through other difficult times, but this crisis is even worse," he told AFP.

Babatope estimated loses for the sector had reached over $9 million (eight million euros) so far due to the virus.

Dozens of film shoots have been put on hold or scrapped and the legion of workers in the industry -- from make-up artists to technicians to ushers -- are going unpaid.

Netflix has suspended the filming of its first original series made in Nigeria and French media giant Vivendi has delayed the opening of its first cinema in the capital Abuja.

Distributors reckon some 50,000 jobs are under threat since the sector juddered to a halt.

"It's going to take a while before it really starts up again," Babatope said.

'New experiences'

To navigate the current troubles the industry has begun pushing its boundaries.

Producer Charles Okpaleke teamed up with two local cinema chains Genesis and Silverbird to launch open-air "Drive-in" facilities.

A first screening in Abuja in late May saw all tickets sell out in just a few hours as viewers flocked to watched his film "Living in Bondage" from the comfort of their own cars.

"COVID forces us to rethink our habits, but it is also an opportunity to try new experiences," Okpaleke told AFP.

Producers and directors are also looking increasingly to the release their films on online streaming services like Netflix and its local competitor Iroko TV.

And even up-and-coming industry hopefuls were given the opportunity to keep on honing their skills despite the disruptions.

French start-up LAFAAC has partnered with cinema school Femis and Nigerian television channel Wazobia to offer online training to would-be scriptwriters via a mobile app.

"Nowadays there is a huge demand for series from Subsaharan Africa despite a relative lack of training," said LAFAAC co-founder Francois Catala.

"I believe that online releases are the future of Nollywood."

France 24