David Adeleke

The pay-TV market in Africa is an extremely tough nut to crack as Econet has found out with its satellite offering, Kwesé TV. The service, as we know it, shut down on November 1, 2018, after 18 long months.

In a statement, Econet Media said it is reviewing its business strategy and service offerings “to maintain its position as a leader in broadcasting innovation in Africa” and align with “the changes in the global digital and satellite broadcasting sector, and growth in access to mobile and fixed broadband” in Africa.

Kwesé is streamlining its services to focus on Kwesé Free Sports (KFS), its free-to-air service, Kwesé iflix, a mobile video-on-demand platform, and Kwesé Play, a video streaming service that includes NBA, Bloomberg, YouTube, and TED channels.

This new strategy will “see the reduction of third-party channels available on the bouquet, as well as the removal of Kwesé branded sports (excluding KFS) and general entertainment channels.” Kwesé’s new bouquet will have only free-to-air, religious, and free news channels, available to viewers for a minimal fee, as it will now waive monthly subscription fees. Essentially, Kwesé is removing most of the content that it does not originally own or that it has to pay for.

Econet says Kwesé subscribers who have already paid their subscriptions for the month of November, or in advance, will receive a full refund.

The new strategy also includes the establishment of Kwesé Studios, where it will develop its own original programming with help from “African producers, scriptwriters, actors and directors.”

Satellite dishes connect township residents to South Africa's DSTV television network, owned by telecommunications giant Naspers, in Khayelitsha township, Cape Town, May 19, 2017.

Kwesé’s satellite TV business, launched in May 2017, is present in 11 markets, including Nigeria, which has seen its share of pay-TV companies falling by the wayside. In 2007, there was HiTV, a company that set out to combat DStv in Nigeria and provide a viable alternative. It went as far as snatching the viewing rights to the English Premier League, one of the major attractions for DStv subscribers. However, for a myriad of reasons, some of which include financing and the difficulty of the market, HiTV soon went out of business.

In 2017, <a id="3c656c73-684e-4fa7-bfeb-187e9afd6109" href="https://www.pulse.ng/news/tech/pulse-got-hold-of-a-free-tstv-decoder-here-are-our-findings-id7553376.html">Nigerians were teased with another DStv competitor</a>, TSTV, but that has since sputtered like a faulty engine.

One of the strongest competitors for DStv’s parent company, Multichoice, in Nigeria has been StarTimes, a Chinese satellite TV company targeting the low-end market. The rise of StarTimes has forced Multichoice to double down on GOtv, which targets the same market class that the Chinese company does.

In the high-end market, <a id="bd8f4514-c4c7-4c95-996a-fc6fba684af4" href="https://www.pulse.ng/bi/strategy/multichoice-wants-the-south-african-govt-to-regulate-netflix-id8614772.html">Multichoice is battling Netflix</a>. Netflix entered South Africa in 2016 and has since grown to over 400,000 subscribers. In March 2018 when it released its financial result for the year, we found out Multichoice had lost 41,000 Premium subscribers, something its CEO blames on Netflix.

<h1>Shutting down Kwesé TV is a smart move</h1>

Kwesé tv acquires major stake in iflix Africa, takes on competition with Showmax, Netflix

The bone pay-TV companies have to pick, however, is not with themselves or with Netflix, it is with the evolving nature of the market. As more people get on the Internet, more of them want to stay there. The market has become digital first, people want to get their content from YouTube and Netflix and Twitter and on their smartphones. Shutting down Kwese is a smart move and it shows Econet realises its battle should be elsewhere. It is keeping Kwesé iflix and Kwesé Play. Smart.

It’s 2018 and Multichoice has not figured out (or perhaps it has and is in denial) that people are now less enthusiastic about buying bulky satellite dishes and decoders that require them to invite engineers and technicians into their homes when they can simply stream content on their laptops and smartphones.

It’ll be interesting to see what becomes of Kwesé’ with this new strategy and what the coming months hold for the pay-TV market in Africa. One thing is certain though, and it is that the Internet will be the ultimate winner here.

Econet is shutting down Kwese TV as we know it, proving just how hard it is to build a pay-TV platform in Africa

<h1>Conversations at the 2018 African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF), which held between September 5-8 in Kigali, Rwanda, revolved around accountability, political will, and getting more young people interested in agriculture.</h1>

We talked about how to improve youth participation in agriculture, its importance, and what the FAO is doing to boost it.

The interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

<h1>Business Insider Sub-Saharan Africa (BISSA): Could you quickly paint a picture of just how important it is to get more young people interested in agriculture?</h1>

David Phiri (DP): It is very very important because what is happening now is that the average of farmers is 55 years. It is an ageing population. What has happened is that there has been a tendency for young people to shun agriculture because it has been associated with rural economies, so they move into urban areas to look for jobs. But the fact is that, eventually, older people will die off. We need people who can sustain agriculture to feed an ever increasing population.

We have to double production by 2050 if we are going to feed 9 billion people that will be inhabiting the world at that time.

ALSO READ: <a id="0f0b3a2c-0a04-57db-8d17-efafa2ca7f64" href="https://www.pulse.ng/bi/politics/africa-could-be-importing-100-billion-worth-of-food-by-2028-id8844092.html">Africa could be importing $100 billion worth of food in the next 10 years, AfDB's VP of Agriculture says</a>

More importantly, agriculture, because of all the new technology we are developing, is becoming a very important business. I think it augurs well for youths, as business people, to take interest in agriculture in so that they can make income from it.

The experience we have so far is that there are many youths who want to go into agriculture, but sometimes they don’t have the resources to upscale what they have. Governments need to create environments where youths are provided with opportunities to prosper.

FAO, the African Union Commission and the Government of Rwanda organised a regional conference for youth employment in agriculture in Kigali just weeks ago. We were very surprised at how many youths want to go into agriculture and how many are already in agriculture and doing well.

What we need to do is to get more youths to go into agriculture, first as agribusiness. Now, what politicians are more concerned about is that agriculture provides an opportunity for them to feed their countries and to provide employment for other youth. But for the youth themselves, the idea of going into agriculture is to do it as a business, the idea is to make money.

If pitched at the right level, agriculture would be a better business or just as good as any other business around. To encourage the youth, it helps to show them that agriculture is not just about crop production and rearing animals, but that they can enter the industry anywhere along the value chain. Some will be off-takers from farms, some will be into processing, while others will be infusing agricultural produce into an industry.

The whole value chain of agriculture is so bold that, if youths are interested, they can do it.

<h1>BI SSA: Let’s talk about the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). What strategic steps has it taken to get young people interested in agriculture and what results have you seen?</h1>

DP: FAO has been encouraging youths to go into agriculture as a business. What we do is we work with governments to support their efforts to provide youths with the facilities they need.

More recently, we have a project in eastern Africa where we found youths who are already interested in agriculture but who could do with some training. We sent them to the Songhaï agricultural training centre (Regional Centre Songhaï) in Benin. It was a large group. They had a one-month-long training.

When they came back, the idea was for them to also train other youths who were interested in agriculture. We awarded those with the best business ideas and pushed them to go ahead.

The meeting that we co-organised with the AUC and the Rwandan Government also provided an opportunity for the youths to know that we have coaches who can help them develop business plans. Even right now, as we speak, there is a coaching session going on at this meeting (at AGRF). Also, recently, we had a hackathon to train those interested in technology related to agriculture, because even that is a business.

So, FAO is trying its best to support local governments and regional communities to get youths to practice agriculture as a business.

Business Inside Sub-Saharan Africa caught up with David Phiri, Subregional Coordinator for Southern Africa, Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) for an interview.

An expert shares the simple reasons why young people are not interested in agriculture and how to change that

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are more than trendy or futuristic topics – they are real computing advances that are playing out in homes and businesses today.

In simple terms, AI is a machine’s ability to reason, and make decisions based on that reasoning, in similar ways to human beings. AI systems learn and evolve over time, so in theory AI can improve itself; the software becomes the software developer.

This creates the potential for exponential gains in analytical and automated processes through AI. Because of this, we stand at a critical juncture in the AI journey – a moment in time where we get to define not just what AI can do, but how it does it.

<h1>Boosting productivity and unlocking growth</h1>

As it goes mainstream – thanks to the cloud, deep learning, and big data – AI will boost productivity and unlock economic growth. It will transform the workplace, and change the shape, look and feel of many industries including health, transport, manufacturing, and more.

But for some, the rise of AI conjures images from the Terminator films or WestWorld TV series. In these stories, humans are at the mercy of these faster, stronger, smarter systems with no ethical hang-ups. These narratives are clear on the problem with AI as they imagine it: no humanity, no heart.

<h1>Exploring ethics within capabilities</h1>

The ethics of AI goes beyond just regulation and legislation. It’s fundamentally about creating an operating framework that limits and directs the priorities of an AI system.

A real-world example is how one might program a driverless motor vehicle to treat an imminent crash. Should the system act to save its own passenger or should it prioritise the life or safety of a pedestrian? We need to know where we stand on these kinds of issues, to tell learning, thinking machines how they should handle them.

If AI can give us natural language interaction, what are the rules we put in place to manage its responses, or to ensure it doesn’t discriminate against non-native English speakers, for example?

If an AI business analytics system can unlock new sales techniques or customer journeys, are these ethical and fair for customers? What does the system do with the private and personal data it collects before, during and after these interactions?

There is a myriad of concerns at play once you scratch beneath the surface.

At Microsoft we take this responsibility extremely seriously. In fact, one of our three core pillars in this field is: “developing a trusted approach so that AI is developed and deployed in a responsible manner”. This relates directly to the principles of fairness, accountability, transparency and ethics (or FATE) that guide us in ensuring our AI systems are fair, reliable and sage, inclusive, transparent and accountable, and private and secure.

Of course, principles are only as good as the processes that flow from these. In “inclusivity” for example, we believe that to achieve AI that is inclusive, we must nurture inclusivity and diversity in the teams creating the systems – and that the output is just as inclusive. These are the kind of concerns that our internal advisory committee examines, to help ensure our products adhere to these principles.

We must also be aware that we are not the only player in the game – that AI advances will happen across companies, NGOs and countries. This is where the role of leadership, and the guidance of community, will be critical. We are an active participant in AI-related forums and organisations, such as the Partnership on AI, for this exact reason – and we encourage all AI players to get involved and help us develop the best practices for AI.

Our approach to AI is grounded in, and consistent with, our company mission to help every person and organisation on the planet to achieve more.

If we remain true to this – as we always strive to be – then we must also consider how to mitigate any of the potential downsides that might result from technological advancement. One source of fear for many, is the idea that AI will change our workplaces and – in certain cases – eliminate jobs. Mitigating this will necessitate nurturing new skills and preparing the workforce (and those who will soon join it) for the future of work.

The transformative power of AI will also mean more regulation from governments across the globe – and across the progressive-conservative spectrum. This will bring private and public sectors into closer collaboration, so AI providers must be prepared to engage, to train, to advocate, and to listen, as we move towards a consensus on the values that we inculcate into AI systems.

<h1>Fear not – we’ve found the sweet spot</h1>

Some people will always fear the unknown, and others will always stride forward in pursuit of progress. The sweet spot lies between them – in the power of AI to unlock creativity, potential and insight, while still behaving in an ethical and responsible manner.

Put aside the scary chapters of a science fiction future for a moment. There is another icon of pop culture that applies – Mary Shelley’s classic tale of Dr Victor Frankenstein and his monster. In Frankenstein, the doctor is driven by ambition and ego, to create a being made up of parts, reanimated into life. But the doctor is horrified by the creature he creates and abandons it rather than guiding it and helping it into this new life it finds itself in – ultimately leading to deadly consequences.

The spectre of that ghoulish creature looms large in our minds, but – as the novel so wonderfully conveys – the real monster in Frankenstein is the doctor, the flawed man who creates a life without consideration of the chain of events he has set in motion. Similarly, those of us working in AI today need to be sure that we give our own “creation” firm rules and guidelines for operating in the world.

To avoid becoming the Doctor-monster of Shelley’s nightmare, we need to put the heart into the machine.

The views expressed in this article solely belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the stance of Business Insider Sub-Saharan Africa.

Also from Business Insider Sub-Sahara Africa:

Microsoft Nigeria country manager, Akin Banuso, explains why ethics must be at the heart of AI

<ul><li>Lagos Startup Week will take place from September 24th – 29th 2018</li><li>This year, the theme for the week is “Getting Started”</li><li>There will be sessions like From Zero to $1Million, Leaders in Tech, and Women Who Launch</li></ul>

Lagos Startup Week, the annual weeklong celebration of startups in Lagos, now in its fourth year, will take place from September 24th – 29th 2018. The event focused on showcasing Lagos’ ever growing startup community and will bring together entrepreneurs, innovators, investors and tech enthusiasts for a full week of learning and networking.

This year, the theme for the week is “Getting Started” and a broad range of sessions and activities have been curated for growth and early stage startup. With sessions like From Zero to $1Million, Leaders in Tech, Women Who Launch and several workshops and master classes, this year’s startup week will provide entrepreneurs insight on raising capital, marketing, sales, bank loans, exit strategies and more.

Over the years, Lagos startup week has featured active Lagos based entrepreneurs like Oluyomi Ojo (Printivo), <a id="693b6745-dae7-59c4-8f76-603a67803d98" href="https://www.pulse.ng/bi/tech/paystack-ceo-talks-to-business-insider-about-new-8m-funding-id8781004.html">Shola Akinlade (Paystack)</a>, Judith Okonkwo (Imisi 3D), Toyin oshinowo (Delivery Science) and seasoned global investors from companies such as Accion, Y-Combinator, Case Foundation, Techstars, Seedstars, Village Capital, IFC - World Bank and  British Council. This year’s event holds from September 24-29.

“It’s going to be a busy week, so make sure you plan your schedule in advance. Our goal from the first Lagos startup week has been to create a platform where entrepreneurs, founders and investors learn, network, find customers and get answers. Every year, we keep getting better at this and encourage new companies to participate” said Olumide Olayinka, Managing Partner, Prime Startups and Chief Organiser of the Lagos Startup Week.

Register for the event <a id="6d3f70c0-7947-5ecf-a49d-3a756d7cba82" href="http://www.lagosstartupweek.com/">here</a>.

The event focused on showcasing Lagos’ ever growing startup community and will bring together entrepreneurs, innovators, investors and tech enthusiasts for a full week of learning and networking.

Lagos Startup Week 2018 is here, save the date

<ul><li>Women make up half of the population and provide 40% of the labour in crop production in Africa.</li></ul>

There are two strong arguments why we need to get greater women and youth involvement in agriculture – pragmatic and strategic.

Let’s deal with the pragmatic first. Women make up half of the population and provide 40% of the labour in crop production in Africa. Moreover, Africa is a continent of young people – 60% of the population is under 24 years of age, and 10–12 million young people join the workforce every year. Any way you look at it, that is a lot of people who have a lot to offer in terms of producing food and fibre.

The more strategic way of looking at it comes back to the old saying, “If the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.” If we focus our development efforts on only men, and especially older farmers, the solutions that we will come up with will be limited. Bring in women and young people, and we open up new horizons.

Women give higher importance to feeding their families and educating their children than men do. They are also more pragmatic – while men may dream of owning a cow, women will get on with the business of raising sheep, goats or poultry and providing good nutrition for their families and boosting their family income.

Studies have shown that a $10 increase in a woman’s income improves the nutrition and health of her children by as much as a $110 increase in a man’s income. Yet women face numerous barriers to achieving higher income.

Across Africa, only 15% of landholders are women, and lack of collateral is at the root of many of their constraints, such as poorer access to education, finance and advisory services and the like. Closing this ‘gender gap’ could increase yields on women-owned farms by 20 to 30%, which could reduce the number of hungry people by 100 to 160 million. And because they bring a different perspective – a screwdriver rather than a hammer – women often come up with innovative solutions that had not occurred to men.

Take, for example, Lovin Kobusingye, founder of the fish processing business Kati Farms Ltd. in Uganda. Her idea for fish sausages created a whole new market and reinvigorated fish farming in the country.

Likewise, people born since the mid-1990s have never known a world without smartphones – one of the key technologies that are opening up opportunities for giving farmers access to agricultural knowledge and advice, weather forecasts, digital banking, market information and the like. And these young people are the ones who are tech savvy and can develop these solutions. But like women, they are hampered by lack of opportunities and access to the knowledge, skills and resources they need to take their enthusiasm from idea to successful enterprise.

The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation – CTA – has been supporting youth in agriculture through initiatives such as Pitch AgriHack and the Centre’s focus on the use of new technologies such as drones to facilitate agricultural transformation in Africa.

Pitch AgriHack offers young e-agriculture entrepreneurs business training, mentorship, incubation and networking opportunities. This year’s Pitch AgriHack competition focuses on empowering women entrepreneurs in applying ICT innovations in agriculture – the best of both worlds.

More than half of the start-ups that will be pitching their e-agribusinesses to policy-makers and potential investors at the African Green Revolution Forum in Rwanda in September 2018 are led by women. And the opportunities offered by Pitch AgriHack are well illustrated by the 2016 winner, Brastorne Enterprises and their mAgri platform, which now has half a million users and 100,000 monthly subscribers in Botswana.

The potential of these approaches is rapidly making its mark, from mobile apps like Hello Tractor, described as “Uber for farmers,” which allows small-scale farmers to hire a tractor or other agricultural machinery, to the use of drones to monitor the health and productivity of tea plantations and other crops across Africa.

Just think how we can transform agriculture and food security across Africa if we bring the power of women and youth to bear on the challenges we face. The future looks bright.

Studies have shown that a $10 increase in a woman’s income improves the nutrition and health of her children by as much as a $110 increase in a man’s income.

How a focus on youth and women entrepreneurship can benefit agribusiness, livelihoods and create jobs

One of the highlights of the event is the DStv Seminar of Creativity that will take place on Friday, August 17, 2018. There are also <a id="50e620ef-4c19-543c-b47e-5e9dd2e3f3cb" href="https://www.pulse.ng/bi/strategy/how-to-choose-a-masterclass-at-the-2018-loeries-creative-week-id8578181.html">eight interesting masterclasses</a> to choose from.

The DStv seminar is particularly for brand communicators and it is something you should definitely not miss. The robust speaker list will include top business people in Africa, Europe, and across the world.

Without further ado, here are the speakers that will grace the DStv Seminar of Creativity.

Chief Creative Officer, Kolle Rebbe

Executive Creative Director, FCB/SIX

Chief Marketing Officer, Google Africa

Executive Creative Director, Ogilvy &amp; Mather

5. Lethepu Matshaba - South Africa

Vice President Homecare Southern Africa, Unilever

Chief Creative Officer, J. Walter Thompson Middle East and Africa

To find out more about the speakers, previous seminars, and how to make booking arrangements for the event, visit <a id="59983e7e-1c56-5128-955b-d7d3103dd4ed" href="http://www.loeries.com/loeries2018.aspx?link=festival_seminar">the Loeries website</a>.

During the third week of August 2018, Durban will host some of the brightest creatives from Africa and the Middle East.

Meet the Speakers for the DStv Seminar of Creativity at Loeries Creative Week 2018

HackForGood is a three-day curriculum and contest that will provide 50 young people from across Nigeria with access to technology tools, instruction, and mentoring to help them develop functional prototypes that address real-world needs of their communities.

Africa's workforce is expected to be the largest in the world by 2040. World Bank Group President Dr. Jim Yong Kim has estimated that two-thirds of all jobs that currently exist in developing countries will be wiped out by technological innovations like automation and robotics.

3D Africa HackforGood empowers youth to future-proof themselves by exposing them to emerging technologies like 3D printing, robotics, artificial intelligence, blockchain, and the Internet of Things so that they can become the innovators, job creators, and highly skilled employees that the future of work requires.

The 2017 edition of the hackathon held on the campus of Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu University in Uli, Anambra State. Team Techkers came third, having developed a hybrid power plant that had solar panels, a wind turbine, and a battery for energy storage. The first runner-up, Team Crea8-Good, developed a device that detects car accidents and informs emergency agencies of the location of those accidents. The winner was Team Hack-botics; they developed a cost-effective robotic arm.

Youth for Technology Foundation (YTF) will be hosting 3D Africa's HackForGood 2018 design and prototyping challenge on the campus of the University of Lagos from August 2nd through the 4th.

3D Africa’s HackForGood comes to the University of Lagos for its 2018 edition

<h3>On June 25, 2018, Nigerian Afropop star, Davido (David Adeleke) made history when he</h3>

This was a symbol of how far Nigerian music had come. But more so, it was a pointer to how powerful it had grown. And one of the men that has been most instrumental to this is Alex Okosi, Executive Vice President and Managing Director for Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) Africa, the parent company of MTV, MTV Base, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, and BET. Alex launched MTV Africa in February 2005, a move that has proved instrumental to the growth of African music.

I caught up with Alex after the BET Awards and we talked about the BET International Act award, <a id="b869ecae-1c81-4345-811d-651fba86fcc1" href="https://www.pulse.ng/entertainment/music/davido-wins-best-international-acts-award-id8544404.html">Davido’s win</a>, and the impact that MTV Base has had on African music.

The interview has been lightly and edited and condensed for clarity.

Business Insider (BI): For the first time ever, the BET International Act award was presented live on stage, how did you feel finally seeing an African artiste walk up to receive it?

Alex Okosi (AO): I was incredibly excited, excited for Davido, I was excited for the music industry in Nigeria and across Africa. We launched MTV Base to provide a platform for Africans to shine and for young African brand to shine globally. African artists can now shine globally and compete in the international music scene. I think it is a tremendous achievement.

BI: Davido won it after a strong run in the past year and a half, how do you see the award and its impact evolving in the coming years?

AO: From Davido’s perspective, the award solidifies his places as one of the hottest artists that are speaking to youth culture internationally and now, hopefully, embeds him deeper into the US market. The evolution of the award is that it will continue to celebrate international artists that are making an impact on youth culture. It is more exciting knowing that this award will be recognised in front of millions of music fans all over the world through the BET Awards, both in the US and internationally.

BI: What are some of the things that have excited you the most about running Viacom International Media Networks in Africa?

AO: What excites me the most is that I am able to work across an incredible array of brands that speak to people from ages three or four to forty and beyond. On a day-to-day basis, I’m responsible for ensuring that we drive connections with our audiences across multiple platforms, from brands that speak to kids and family like Nickelodeon, to the youth like MTV, MTV Base, and BET, to adults on Comedy Central. It also excites me that I’m working with young Africans across the continent to be able to develop these brands and localise them as much as we can, to make sure that they serve and are relevant to our consumers on a day-to-day basis.

BI: What are some of the biggest challenges you have faced?

AO: The media space is evolving. We need to continue to be at the fore of what is happening within our consumers and viewers' mind. We need to make sure that we have content available on multiple platforms that cater to the needs of the consumers who, of course, want to view content when, how, and where they want it. We are doing that now and we need to make sure that we are consistently delivering on those levels because while the linear television space is still very powerful, we know that some audiences are also now going on-demand. So, we need to make sure we have content on-demand on the platforms that matter to our viewers.

BI: What would you consider the biggest impact MTV Base has had on the music scene in Africa?

AO: We changed the music scene in Africa. We elevated the most powerful way for artists and music to travel, which is through music videos. When we came to Africa, the quality of music videos was poor especially north of South Africa. We came in, we held training and workshops. Because we believed if the world got to see our artists in the best light, they would appreciate their music and that the music would travel much more through the music videos which is the most powerful thing for you as an artist -- to be able to convey your creativity, your passion and your artistry. If it was clear, if it was well conceptualised, if it was packaged in the best way, then it would give you the best chance of being able to connect.

When we arrived, we raised the benchmark for what is good quality and the artists and their teams responded to that. But of course, we put in work, we produced free music videos for artists, we held music video workshops across Africa and I think that was a catalyst for what you see today.

BI: With Nigerian music going global, what is MTV Base’s role in taking our entertainment content and showcasing it to the world?

AO: Our role is what we are doing and will continue to do, which is to leverage our platform digitally and otherwise to make sure that we are highlighting and showcasing the best talent. Because we are a well-recognised brand, it gives us more credibility when we speak to people outside the continent to understand the power of the music that is coming from here because they know that we are an authority in music. If we are flying the flag of our artistes outside Africa, that means that they are good, that means that they are quality, it means that they can compete with the rest of the world.

Additionally, our role is to provide opportunities for the younger artists to rise.

BI: Do you think the social nature of content on the Internet has made it easier for new musicians to rise to the top?

AO: I think there are pro and cons to it. There’s a whole bunch of people, talented and otherwise, that are now pushing their music through social media, which I think is a good thing. It can be tough sometimes because there is a lot of noise, there is a lot of people and it’s very difficult for you to now discover who the great ones are. So, it has its pros and cons but I think most of it is good because it means that as an artist, there’s really less of an excuse and fewer reasons why if you’re really good you can’t, at the minimum, be discovered.

Alex Okosi, Executive Vice President and Managing Director for Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) Africa

Alex Okosi, Executive Vice President and Managing Director for Viacom International Media Networks

Alex Okosi talked about the BET International Act award, Davido’s win, and the impact that MTV Base has had on African music.

Alex Okosi talks to Business Insider about Davido’s historic win at the BET Awards and MTV Base’s impact on the quality of African music videos

<ul><li>The $6 million earmarked for the competition will be divided equally among Google’s markets in Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa.</li><li>Google.org is committing $20 million over the next five years to non-profits that are working to improve lives across Africa.</li></ul>

On Wednesday, May 23, 2018, Google announced the launch of the 2018 Africa Impact Challenge. The competition will be aimed at finding the most innovative not-for-profit organisations in Africa that are using technology to solve societal problems.

The Google Africa Impact Challenge is built on the back of Google CEO, Sundar Pichai’s announcement <a id="901ce722-1443-540d-9e79-363586b12c6b" href="http://www.pulse.ng/news/tech/ceo-sundar-pichai-talks-googles-plans-for-nigeria-id7074054.html">when he visited Nigeria in July 2017</a>. Pichai said, “Our charitable arm, Google.org, is committing $20 million over the next five years to nonprofits that are working to improve lives across Africa.

“We also want to invite nonprofits from across the continent to share their ideas for how they could impact their community and beyond. So we’re launching a Google.org Impact Challenge in Africa in 2018 to award $5 million in grants.”

The $6 million earmarked for this competition will be divided equally among Google’s markets in Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa ($2 million each). The winners of the competition will not just have access to the grants, but will also receive training and mentorship from Google.

12 winners will be selected in each country. The top four will receive $250,000: three of them will be selected by a panel of judges and one will be selected through public voting. The eight runners-up will receive $125,000 each. The winners will be announced during an award ceremony that will hold during the week of November 26, 2018 in Lagos, Nairobi and Johannesburg.

In Nigeria, the winners will be decided by a panel of judges that includes:

<ul><li>John Momoh</li><li>Leo Stan Ekeh</li><li>Parminder Vir</li><li>MI Abaga</li><li>Oluseyi Oyebisi</li><li>Mo Abudu</li><li>Kanu Nwankwo</li><li>Eghosa Omoigui</li><li>Juliet Ehimuan-Chiazor</li></ul>

<h1>How to be a part of the 2018 Google Africa Impact Challenge</h1>

Applications will close on Wednesday, July 4, 2018 and review will commence on the 5th. Public voting will open on November 5 and run for three weeks until the 25th. The final event will hold on the week of November 26.

Google has announced the launch of the 2018 Africa Impact Challenge, a competition aimed at finding the most innovative non-profit organisations in Africa.

Google is awarding $6 million to innovative non-profit organisations in Africa. Here's how to be a part of it.

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The Pulse Influencer Awards has been set up to recognize and highlight bright lights in the influencer space in Africa who are building active engaged communities around their niche or craft.