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Featured Interviews

Ebenezer Owoeye, Genesis Studios on its series Tales of Eve about challenges faced by African women "Tales ofg Eve is a series about women and the challenges they face like female genital multilation and lack of jobs and the trials and triumphs of women in Nigeria and Africa generally.
Samuel Odeloye and Ladi Ojora, Roadpreppers on Lara, a chatbot to find transport solutions "Lara is a chatbot that helps people in fragmented cities with difficult transportation systems plan, commute and connect better. She works like a friend. She gives you simple steps from A to B.
Hruy Tsegaye, iCog Labs on creating Africa’s 1st robot: a child speaking Amharic to tell stories "We have been using investors from China and some of their projects have been created. We also have partners in China who are interested in the African software market."
Abdihakim Ainte on Mogadishu’s iRise virtual incubator and start-ups it has helped "We actually unlock the future entrepreneurs, developers and coders, the next generation who could lead the future.
Bilen Shifferaw, Gebeya on winning outsourced developer work on a game, mobile app & crypto currency "There's a really good ecosystem here (in the UK) and there's a lot of people interested in Africa. There's a lot of opportunities to connect with businesses who need to outsource."
EchoVC’s Eghosa Omoigui on the risks posed by certain investors to African start-ups "We are focused on entrepreneurs who attract the talent. The WOW emtrepreneurs. With or Without Us entrepreneurs. That entrepreneur is going to do it with or without us."
Tope Omotolani and Sola Oyawale, Farmcrowdy on raising diaspora investment for small-scale farmers "Over 10 months and specifically on rice, an investor would be getting a 15% return over a 9 month period."
Josiah Eyison on how iSpace supports Ghanaian start-ups and its Women & Tech Programme "We have Flipify which is working witrh Big Data and they want to get into the AI side of things which is interesting".
Neo Maditla, Designindaba.com on design trends in Africa and her favorite African designers "There's a lot more African designers looking to themselves and their own heritage as inspiration rather than let's copy what's happening in London or China."
George Ahere on Weza Interactive’s new game Mzito where players purge ancient corruption of Africa "We picked 50 locations all over Africa and each level is an actual location in Africa".
Pule Taukobong, CRE Venture Capital on what kind of African start-ups he’s looking for "The key thing is that the founders are those entrepreneurs that can take a business plan that looks impossible and execute it."
Herman Singh on how MTN sees Africa’s digital future…and it’s one app "You've got to build a big community and keep them engaged. What does that mean in terms of building a massive digital ecosystem?"
Ghana’s Nicole Amarteifio on completing Season 3 of An African City and selling to a US network Before The Vows is a romantic comedy about a couple getting married and they come up with an unconventional plan to ensure a long and happy marriage.
Lucy K, Mobile Reporting Project, NBC on using phones to record and upload stories to radio and TV "Mobile reporting is going out with a phone and collecting video, text and audio for radio and the whole multimedia shebang."
Jehiel Oliver, Hello Tractor on how his start-up pivoted from manufacturing to data collection "Our core product is software and a monitoring device on a tractor. They have full visibility on what the tractor did..."
Alpesh Patel on Africa’s original start-up Mi-Fone, the hip-hop telecoms brand and why it failed "Our first year we did US$1.2 million, completely self-funded. I used my life-savings."
Michelle Andrade on how Lagos’ Workstation helps entrepreneurs turn ideas into reality "Our Workhouse Start programme is going to be an in-house team that helps members bring their ideas to reality."
Chika Uwazie on Nigerian HR and payroll start-up TalentBase that is raising US$2 million to expand "If we'd done Talentbase 5 years ago...people didn't care about paying taxes. Now with the economy in its current state, people want to become more efficient."
Joshua Mwaniki and Mbithe Nzomo on how Andela will create 100,000 African developers "We're tring to address the talent gap in Africa. Our mission is to get 100,000 world class developers on the continent."
Serge Noukoue on why Nollywood Week is in Paris and his future plans for the festival "Nollywood Week in Paris happens every year and showcases the best Nollywood films."
Start-up founder Nicole Kayode, Medixus on a peer to peer advice app for African doctors "Medixus is a platform for doctors across Africa...we connect them and it's a safe space for them to collaborate on patient cases."
Tosh Juma, Nairobi Design Institute on the setting up of a human-centred design course for companies "A local tech compoany will be looking at connecting their product with user needs. (Our students) will work with them to understand the needs, the pain points and behavious they need to target."
Ghana: Emmanuel Noah on start-up BenBen’s roll-out of its Blockchain land registry "The first step to developing this solution was for there to be a robust, secure and trusted land registry."
Domestly Co-Founders Berno Potgieter and Thatoyaone Marumo on being the Uber for cleaners in SA "Domestly is an online marketplace. We connect vetted cleaning professionals with those requiring their service."
Start-up founder Mary Mwangi on creating an automated system for collecting cash from Kenyas matatus "The system proposed was that most matatus would go cashless by having cards and they were supposed to be given by the banks".
Afua Osei on how She Leads Africa helps young women realise their start-up or career potential "Our website is a platform and home for a bunch of wonderful resources and opportunities to connect with experts. Ever week we run a webinar."
Olivier Laouchez on how Trace TV’s digital offer will make 50% of its revenues in 3 years time "We want 50% of all our revenues to be digital in three years time."
Nate Anderson on Uber’s successful roll-out in East Africa and UberEats in Johannesburg "We've been so excited by the growth in Nairobi. It's one of those markets in Uber that we say we wished we'd launched it earlier."
Bunmi Okunowo on the start-ups selected at Start-Up Friday to get seed and accelerator funding "The largest number of entries for start-up support was from Lagos. Then the second largest entry was from Abuja which shocked us. The third one was Kaduna."
Juliet Ehimuan, Google Nigeria on why the Internet of Things matters for Africa and how to use it "At WEF in Kigali there was a lot of talk about smart cities in the Northern Corridor with the Internet of Things and sensors: traffic management, environmental services, etc"
Binta Coudy De, JJiguene on how it helps women street sellers go online to sell food products "We created an e-commerce platform to give them the opportunity to sell those (food) products online".
Jennifer Chizua on launching Startpreneurs, Abuja’s first start-up accelerator Startpreneurs is Abuja's first accelerator programme for innovative entrepreneurs.
Biola Alabi on two Nollywood films - Dry and Wives on Strike - that tackle the issue of child brides One (Dry) has a much more serious tone. Both are very effective in their messages but very different.
Abi Adisa, Amara Suites on raising £1 million using the Emerging Crowd platform Emerging Crowd are one of the few crowdfunding platforms focused on emerging markets.
Tech Cabal’s Bankole Oluwafemi on making Lagos a Playable City - The Mirror that talks back to you It's about getting people to engage with the city in a playful way...It's about getting them to do interesting things, they would not normally do
Obi Emelonye on his film Oxford Gardens - “A love story wrapped in boxing gloves” I did it as a co-production with MNet Africa Magic, partnership I hope will continue. They're trying to move from acquisition to co-production.
How to steal 2 Million’s Charlie Vundla on Cuckold, a film about a menage a trois "It is a purely 100% independent film. I guess it came from inside of me. It was a story that had to be told."

Recent Interviews

Culture

Dawit Abraham, Qene Technologies on its 3D mobile game Kukula, an African game to conquer the world

Dawit Abraham, Qene Technologies on its 3D mobile game Kukula, an African game to conquer the world

“"When they first see the game they know that it's actually African and it looks good...There is a lack of African games in the global market."”

Business

Itumuleng Mabote on how start-up Ubutouch creates trusted, smart access to the home

Itumuleng Mabote on how start-up Ubutouch creates trusted, smart access to the home

“"Ubutouch is a form of access ccontrol for the home, to open the possibility of goods and services in your home without you needing to be there."”

Film & Media

Izu Osuigwe, CEO, Forest TV on its African channels VoD platform and its new satellite offering

Izu Osuigwe, CEO, Forest TV on its African channels VoD platform and its new satellite offering

“"The service is subscription based. With MTN Nigeria, once you subscribe to the services, it doesn't cost you for data."”

History

Historian Ed Keazor reflects on what happened during the 1966 military coups in Nigeria

Historian Ed Keazor reflects on what happened during the 1966 military coups in Nigeria

“The coup created a permanent rift in the Nigerian Army and within the Nigerian polity.”

Development

Jaye Connolly-Labelle, RippleNami on using Blockchain and RFID to track Kenyan cows

Jaye Connolly-Labelle, RippleNami on using Blockchain and RFID to track Kenyan cows

“"When a cow is born, it gets an RFID tag, it gets logged into a system via the app. From there, vets will make sure it gets its vaccinations."”

Featured Interviews

Ebenezer Owoeye, Genesis Studios on its series Tales of Eve about challenges faced by African women

Ebenezer Owoeye, Genesis Studios on its series Tales of Eve about challenges faced by African women

“"Tales ofg Eve is a series about women and the challenges they face like female genital multilation and lack of jobs and the trials and triumphs of women in Nigeria and Africa generally.”

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