Winifred Nwania is using her status as a YouTuber and influencer to seek out Nigeria’s rich repertoire of ingredients and recipes to put her country on the global food map.



When Winifred Nwania was 12 years old, her world turned upside down. The happy, idyllic life she and her six siblings were accustomed to in Lagos in Nigeria was shattered overnight when their father passed away.



“In the Igbo culture [of Nigeria], when a person loses her husband, the husband’s relatives come and make life really difficult for the woman, especially if they don’t like her and that was the case for my family. They took my father’s assets, his properties and everything he owned from us and my mother had to start life from scratch,” says Nwania.



In that tragic moment, Nwania would serendipitously find her calling. Noticing her brothers were hungry, Nwania decided to step up to give her mother a breather during the mourning period.



“I don’t know where that strength came from but I decided to do something for my brothers who were hungry and wanted to eat. So, I made the worst pot of jollof rice ever in my life but because I had this winning spirit that my dad had taught me, I changed my strategy the next day,” recalls Nwania.



The next day she decided to enlist the help of her mother. In between running back and forth from the family kitchen to her mother’s room for instructions, Nwania made her second pot of food and this time, it came out a lot better. That was all Nwania needed to convince her that she wanted to spend the rest of her life in the kitchen, cooking for all.



As fate would have it, during her one-year mandatory tenure as a National Youth Service Corps, the Nigerian government introduced an initiative called the skills acquisition and entrepreneurship development program to help everyone learn a skill before they left the youth camp.



“It came to my mind that I loved to cook and so I looked for a catering trainer in the camp and I joined her class and the first [dish] she cooked was with yam. She made a yam piccata and I still have the picture to this day. I was so intrigued by how she transformed the yam and I said this is what I want to do with the rest of my life. I made up my mind that I [would] delve deeper and make something out of this,” says Nwania.



But first she needed to pay her bills. After graduating from the camp, she joined an oil and gas company where she worked in the finance department to help foot her daily expenses but reserved the weekends for learning all she could about catering.



“I would go online, and on social media for articles and videos and the next step was to go to culinary school. The prices in Nigeria were too high and I couldn’t afford it at the time. So, I decided to go to the website of the school and I went to their curriculum section and saw that they had put the names of the books and the materials that they were going to use to teach the students. So, I took down all the names of the books and I bought them myself and trained myself by practicing in the kitchen.”



Nwania decided to post the images of her culinary creations on her Blackberry phone and soon began to get recipe requests from her followers. Her sister introduced the idea of blogging to Nwania and before long she was building a steady following online.



“I wasn’t really excelling in my nine-to-five job anymore. I was given a task and I was making so many errors and mistakes. My boss came and asked me why. He decided to check my computer and saw that I had so many windows opened about food. None of it had anything to do with my actual job at work and my boss said ‘if you want to go and cook in the kitchen why don’t you go and do that instead of sitting here’. And that is when it hit me. I quit my job without a plan,” laughs Nwania.



Her first plan was to have her own cooking channel and she reached out to every network she could find for a TV spot. No one responded. Yet again, her sister came to her rescue with another plan. This time, she suggested Nwania create her own YouTube channel and self-publish her content.



“At that time, YouTube was not that much of a big deal. So, I went on the platform and there was no one there I could look up to. So, I got a one-man production company and our goal was to get 5,000 subscribers but in the first six months, we got over 50,000 subscribers and grew so fast.”



Zeelicious Food was born. Today, Nwania boasts her own cooking show, My Naija Plate, on DSTv’s Honey TV where she has aired two seasons. She her own cook book and a lucrative YouTube channel with over 840,000 subscribers. Her videos average over a million views with brand partnerships from telco companies and other brands wanting to tap into her growing audience as an influencer.



“The main goal was to actually put Nigerian food on the global food map and help people with the opportunity to have a food repertoire. We are blessed with a very rich array of ingredients and I took it upon myself to research and use them to develop recipes that the people in this part of the world can relate to. The feedback has been amazing with people [even] telling me how I am saving their marriage by helping them be better cooks,” says Nwania.



Next up in building her food empire is to become a qualified nutritionist. Looking back on that fateful day when she was 12, Nwania believes everything happened for a reason. She ponders out loud at the end of our call that it was her mother’s tenacity in the face of unimaginable difficulty that made her a successful food entrepreneur.

Why Success Is On The Menu For This Nigerian Chef

Nigerian footballer Ositadimma Umenyiora, who won the Super Bowl championships twice, is now identifying talented youth in the UK and Africa and providing them with training and scholarships to attend prestigious universities and play professional football.



The Superbowl, the annual football championship game of the National Football League (NFL), is one of America’s biggest sporting traditions. This year, over 113 million people reportedly tuned in to watch the game that saw Kansas City Chiefs emerge victorious against Philadelphia Eagles.



From Hollywood A-listers to music superstars, the Superbowl is perhaps the one all-encompassing sports event that literally grips Americans, bringing people from all walks of life together for the most epic football game each year.



It is such a big American tradition that it costs a staggering $7 million, according to The Wall Street Journal, to place a 30-second ad spot during the game. And not just anybody can perform at America’s biggest sports event.



You have to be a global superstar like Beyoncé or Rihanna to be able to grace the stage of the coveted halftime event. And to win the Superbowl championship means a player has reached the pinnacle of American football. So, when Ositadimma Umenyiora, or Osi, a Nigerian born in England, won this coveted championship twice, it was nothing short of a miracle. And this is his story.



It all started when he relocated from England to Lagos when he was seven years old. After completing his secondary school education, Umenyiora’s parents decided he should pursue his education in America when he turned 14.



“I got to America and that was what everybody was playing and talking about and it was the biggest thing where I went. I still wasn’t interested because it looked strange to me just seeing people running around and hitting each other but I had some friends who told me I was pretty athletic because I used to play basketball and I should go try out,” recalls Umenyiora.



Wanting to fit in with the other cool kids and most importantly to avoid being bullied for being the only African in Alabama, Umenyiora decided to try out. Even though he wasn’t exactly good at the sports initially, he was lucky enough to have the physique and raw talent to bag a scholarship to go to university to play football. And that is how he earned a college degree.



“All of a sudden it was like you can make a living and considerable amount of money playing this game. I got drafted into the NFL and it changed my life. So, for me, I can never underestimate what the game was able to do for me and for my family. It was an incredible experience.”



He played 12 seasons which equates to four times the average career of a footballer as a defensive end for the New York Giants.



“We won the Superbowl twice. The experience of that was surreal because when you are in America and you watch football and you understand the significance of that game to the country, you never really picture yourself getting,” says Umenyiora.



But that is exactly what happened and being there in that environment and not only getting the chance to play but actually winning the Superbowl completely transformed Umenyiora’s life. After he retired from the game, Umenyiora decided he would try and give other young people the same opportunity that the NFL blessed him with. He relocated to the United Kingdom (UK) to help grow the game and after a short period of time, realized most of the talent he was discovering for the sports were from Africa.



That was his Eureka moment.



“Going around scouting, we started to figure out that yes there were athletes in the UK but at the end of the day, a lot of the athletes were actually African and Nigerian. Then I remembered the entire time I was in the NFL, I kept on doing charity back in Nigeria building wells, scholarships etc. and it just never seemed to be enough because there were so many people who needed help and opportunities.



“I realized there are over a hundred players currently playing in the NFL who are either of African descent or born in Africa and we know that in terms of talent and athletic ability, Africa has an abundance of that probably more than anywhere in the world,” says Umenyiora.



For Umenyiora, Africa is the future. After a brief conversation with the chairman of the NFL, NFL Africa was created. For Umenyiora the business case was simple.



“I told him everything we are looking for; we all know that if you look at Africa especially as a population as a whole, we know that there is going to be capitalism development there. So, if you are looking for your next 100 million or 200 million, the youth population and massive population growth, that is where you are going to find it and Africans can play the game to a very high standard.”



The goal for Umenyiora is to give Africans the same opportunities that transformed his life. NFL Africa identifies talented youth in the UK and Africa and provides them with training and scholarships to attend prestigious universities and play professional football. The journey has been a difficult one. Firstly, there is little to no infrastructure for sports in Africa.



“You have all this talent and I’m talking about hundreds of millions of dollars of talent that is just there and there is nothing built specifically to train and build these athletes to be able to identify them,” says Umenyiora.



To overcome this challenge, Umenyiora and his team have set up camps to find the best talent across the continent and provide them with the requisite training to get them up to speed. The ones that are a bit older are put into the international player pathway program to directly try out for the NFL. So far, Umenyiora has placed seven African athletes on lucrative NFL rosters.



And this is just the beginning. As America gears up for the 2024 Superbowl, Umenyiora is hoping that another African will get to experience how it feels to play at the apex of American football and through the opportunities NFL Africa has provided, create a knock-on effect that transforms the lives of other impoverished youth on the African continent.

Atlanta Falcons v Buffalo Bills

Bowling Over Africa: Finding The Future Of Football

Darey Art Alade of Livespot 360 is using innovation and ideas to build out Nigeria’s entertainment and experiential events industry.



Darey Art Alade and his wife Deola are the powerhouse duo behind one of Nigeria’s leading creative companies, Livespot 360.



From launching global entertainment formats such as The Real Housewives of Lagos and The Voice to producing Last One Laughing, shooting commercials and creating viral radio jingles in Nigeria, Art Alade and Deola, who wear the hats of creative director and CEO respectively, have been at the helm of cutting-edge experiential events in Nigeria for the last decade.



Art Alade also moonlights as one of Nigeria’s most sought-after musical talents and event hosts. His foray into the content production and event space began in his early years when chance and preparation got him his first gig on the radio. Born in Lagos, he grew up surrounded by music. His father was a legendary media personality and musician who counted Nigerian icons like Fela Kuti amongst his friends. His parents met when they were both singing in a church choir years ago which incidentally is also where Art Alade honed his skills as a musician.



“I learned how to make commercials, interview people etc, from the radio. One day, someone hosting the morning show opened up an opportunity for me by not showing up for work and I was there, ready, prepped and I took over and the opportunity built itself. Everything was all about time and chance,” says Art Alade to FORBES AFRICA.



From that early opportunity, Art Alade became the go-to name for event hosting, wedding ceremonies and corporate launches in Nigeria.



“Along the way I met my wife and we ended up releasing and promoting my first album and from then on we continued to make music. We set up a record label and she was running a design outfit at the time and we came together and there was always ideas and creativity and that’s how we started out doing things together and we went into the creative space,” recollects Art Alade.



Nigeria’s creative industry is the second-largest employer set to account for about 2.7 million jobs by 2025 according to research by Jobberman, Nigeria’s leading career site.



Like many things in Africa, innovation comes from a lack of infrastructure or scarcity of resources and Art Alade saw this lack in the entertainment space as an opportunity to provide a solution.



“A lot of things we wanted to do at that time couldn’t be done because there was no infrastructure or experience so it was necessity that forced us to create our own experiences,” says Art Alade.



The first experience they created was Love Like A Movie, a Vegas-style experience where music meets theater at the intersection of cutting-edge production – with Kim Kardashian even flying out to join the party. That was the first time in Nigeria’s entertainment history that a solo artist had launched an album like this.



“I was one of the first to engage in what everyone is doing as a template when it comes to launching an album. So, you have a body of work and then it’s time to perform that body creatively, then you invite the whole industry and make it an experience. That happened years ago and I set the trend as a solo artist,” says Art Alade.



That gave birth to the first iteration of Livespot. As word-of-mouth spread, Livespot production morphed into a content ideation and execution hub responsible for the entire 360-degree delivery of brand activations. The company is so busy that during our call at 9PM, Art Alade was still on set



putting the final touches together for their new experiential event, Gangs of Lagos, Amazon Prime’s first Nigerian Original, which is set to launch in a week. From Heineken to Apple, Netflix to Showmax, Livespot 360 has built a clientele of both blue-chip Nigerian companies and multibillion-dollar global industry giants who have a vision of sampling the growing Nigerian creative space.



“We want to be the go-to creative solutions company not just in Nigeria but across the globe. We want people to come into Nigeria through our eyes because we understand the challenges on the ground. A lot of global brands want to come into the country but sometimes what happens globally doesn’t apply here and you need a nuanced understanding on the ground and the infrastructure to navigate the challenging waters here.”



Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy with over 200 million inhabitants so it is no wonder that all the global entertainment companies are making a play to capture a share of this market. From music labels like Sony Music and Roc Nation to the National Basketball Association’s establishment of NBA Africa and Amazon and Netflix, it’s boom time for Nigeria’s creatives.



“I think the Nigerian entertainment industry is flying but we must not get carried away because it is very important to translate a lot of the hype to actual success. It is about building for the future and we have to invest more and more in infrastructure as well as people by training and educating our technical hands. When the hype is gone, just like Bollywood had its peak, how are we going to trickle that down on the value chain and not just internationally but in Nigeria to invest in the people that will solidify the success?” says Art Alade.



And that is where Livespot 360 wants to make a difference. From investing in people and technology, the company hopes to continue contributing to the Nigerian creative industry and owning the platforms that will shape Nigeria’s entertainment future.

Darey Art Alade, image supplied

Insights Into Nigeria’s Booming Entertainment Industry

For Rachel Moré-Oshodi of RUWAH, financial literacy is a major issue that needs to be tackled to end the cycle of generational poverty for many Africans on the continent.



A basic understanding of your financial health goes a long way in not only how you plan your economic wellbeing but also how healthy an economy is. These small micro financial decisions are so crucial that they are learned by most people by the age of seven, according to Rachel Moré-Oshodi, an investment professional turned entrepreneur, with her solution to teach children about financial literacy called RUWAH.



RUWAH, is a prepaid debit card and financial literacy platform on a mission to educate kids and teens in Africa about generational wealth. As a former investment banker, Moré-Oshodi defines wealth as not just money; wealth is about having a purpose and vision for your life and going for it. She learned the importance of wealth-building after a bitter personal experience – when she lost her father to cancer.



“Growing up, money was not spoken about. When my father died 23 years ago, there was no will that we could find and my mum and kids lost everything. We had a legal battle with some of [my dad’s] family members over assets and we are still in court today,” says Moré-Oshodi.



Originally from Cameroon, she has spent a significant amount of her life helping to raise investments for organizations such as the World Bank, Rand Merchant Bank and Total Energies. But even with that breadth of experience, it was not until 15 years ago that she truly understood the importance of having a firm grasp on financial literacy.



“I have been helping raise money for companies and I thought I knew finance but I didn’t know anything about personal finance. Then I realized I had an issue with money and I didn’t have a relationship with money. The money was just sitting in my bank and going from my paycheck to my bank and I didn’t realize that I had a fear of investing”.



Moré-Oshodi believed it was good and safe to leave the money depreciating in her bank account instead of making the money work for her.



“Until I started to research and educate myself and utilize some of the resources available, that is when things changed. Even though I lost some money, I made so much more and as I was making more money, I wanted to pass it on to my kids.”



So, she started teaching her kids about financial literacy and very soon, friends and family started signing up to learn from her. But it was not until she enrolled on a Harvard program that the idea of RUWAH began to truly crystalize. According to S&amp;P’s global financial literacy survey, African countries score the worst in the world in financial literacy.



For Moré-Oshodi, this is a major issue that needs to be tackled to end the cycle of generational poverty for many Africans on the continent.



“RUWAH is a comprehensive financial literacy program that aims to reduce the knowledge and opportunity gap that exists between kids in Africa and the rest of the world. We teach African kids and teenagers (between seven to 18 years), the knowledge and skills that they need to succeed financially later in life. Our self-paced financial classes, pocket money app, and prepaid debit card will teach them the essentials of personal finance, i.e., what money is, how to earn it, how to save, how to multiply it and use it to achieve their goals,” says Moré-Oshodi.



The goal of the platform is also instilling confidence and providing the foundations for kids and teens to become financially savvy at a young age and secure their financial future intergenerationally. For Moré-Oshodi, tackling this issue requires a psychological approach to looking at money.



“Money is not scarce. It is either you don’t have a good relationship with money or you have an unhealthy relationship with money. In Africa in particular, we feel we cannot make more money and it cannot grow and that is not true. The scarcity mindset instead of the abundance mindset is a real issue. But when you start dealing with that at a later stage it is much more difficult to change that mindset. Money is psychological and money is emotional. Money tells you your value and who you are and where your heart is. I felt instead of dealing with adults, it’s better to deal with children.”



RUWAH leverages technology to make the program accessible to most children in Africa. The platform is device-agnostic as well as user-friendly and tailored specifically to the African landscape, considering the cultural nuances that affects decision-making about money on the continent.

Rachel Moré-Oshodi, pic supplied

‘Scarcity Mindset Instead Of Abundance Mindset A Real Issue In Africa’: The Cameroonian Enabling Financial Literacy

Kene Okwuosa and Moses Babatope set out to deliver world-class movie-going experiences to the Nigerian public and 10 years later, that vision is still going strong.



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“We were so passionate about cinema and so passionate about film that not figuring it out was not an option.”
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When Kene Okwuosa and Moses Babatope met for the first time at Odeon Surrey Quays Cinema in London, they had no idea that in just a couple of years they would be redefining the movie-going experience in Nigeria. In October 2002, Babatope was looking for a part-time job while studying at Middlesex University and Okwuosa was the manager in charge of recruiting the new batch of young hopefuls to join the Odeon Cinema universe.



“We had two or three stages in the recruitment process where you speak to a full auditorium and play out an emergency situation. If you do well, then you go to the interview and after your interview, you were told whether you were successful or not. I didn’t have a good session when it came to the scenario part of the interview so I was going to walk myself out when a gentleman called me and said I should do better next time and I am okay to proceed to the next phase. That gentleman was Kene,” recalls Babatope.



A bond was immediately formed between the two gentlemen. Today, they are co-founders of one of the biggest cinema chains, Filmhouse Cinemas, in Nigeria. They are also best friends married to two sisters.



Okwuosa, the group CEO and Babatope, who doubles as the group deputy CEO, offer advanced cinema experiences to the average Nigerian with the official rights to IMAX for the West African region.



In hindsight, the duo never saw their entrepreneurial journey unfolding this way. In fact, there was a time not too long ago that their dream almost didn’t take off.



The duo initially experimented by offering Nigerian movie producers an opportunity to premiere Nollywood movies in the United Kingdom for the first time.



“That was a game-changer. We got real insights about people’s experiences and how they felt during the cinema experience. In all of that, we never thought to ourselves that we can find capital and start our own. Our scenario was ‘let’s go, show our experience and see what happens’,” says Babatope.



Then, they became more audacious.



“The vision started in Nigeria. When we came, we joined a new cinema at the time called Genesis which didn’t go as planned. Our vision was not aligned and we ended up parting ways. But we knew we had to build this thing one way or the other. We were so passionate about cinema and so passionate about film that not figuring it out was not an option. It was an opportunity to step back and say we can do this on our own,” says Okwuosa.



But to have a dream is one thing and finding money to back that dream is another thing entirely.



“We understood that we did not have the last names that would open doors in Nigeria for us to get investment but we were convinced that if we could just get started and figure it out, we would learn and figure it out on the way,” says Okwuosa.



Okwuosa and Babatope spent two years knocking on every conceivable door they could find in Nigeria trying to raise capital and convince investors to bet on them. As luck would have it, the Goodluck Jonathan administration in 2011 had established a creative industry fund, which was being managed by the Bank of Industry, a development finance institution in Nigeria.



“At this time, we just came from London and we assumed we would fill out a form and wait for the call. We did that and no one called us back. We got as far as being invited to pitch properly for a loan for one million dollars. They were impressed. We had no security or collateral but they were taken by the passion and management expertise we had to set up cinemas,” says Okwuosa.



They became the first company to access the fund and with that injection, they opened their first Filmhouse Cinemas, which was a three-seat cinema in Surulere in December 2012. Okwuosa and Babatope set out to deliver world-class cinema experiences to the Nigerian public and 10 years later, that vision is still going strong.



But Covid-19 was by far the biggest singular challenge they faced as a business and the biggest one they faced professionally.



“Within a period of three months, it looked like everything we had worked hard for during the seven years prior was going to evaporate and this was the reality. I was really depressed,” recalls Babatope.



The company had to close its doors to the public for seven months effectively cutting off all revenue.



“On the one hand, we were not generating anything and on the other hand we had stock that was wasting away. We also had equipment and machinery that needed some access to be maintained so they would be in good working condition when we opened. Also, the government didn’t understand the importance of our sector or prioritized it at all,” says Babatope.



But as they say, every cloud has a silver lining. For the budding entrepreneurs at Filmhouse, this came in the form of multimillion blockbuster Nollywood releases as well as the highest-grossing film of all time, Spider-man: No Way Home, when the lockdown ended.



“These were all released in the [peak] of the Omicron [wave] in 2021 and we just hosted the official premiere of Black Panther Wakanda Forever during the Covid era and it’s looking to be the number one film of all time and we are hopeful it will be the first billion-naira film out of our country,” says Babatope.



Another way the company survived was with the help of global streaming platforms that were hungry for quality Nollywood movies. Filmhouse had expanded their offering to also include FilmOne, a content production and distribution business, with a host of blockbuster hits under its belt.



“Back then everything was going to streaming so the catalogue we had built over the years, we were able to monetize that and that was able to help sustain things while the cinema revenue took a hit. As the largest supplier of content to our streaming partners, Netflix and Amazon, everyone wanted content so we were able to boost supply and through that we also strengthened our studio relationships as well,” says Okwuosa.



The company currently stands at 400 employees strong. The key to their continued success they say is their ability to build a sense of community.



“It was a huge part of my growing up so I always understood the power of community. In our time in Odeon, that was the core of everything that drove us passionately. When you think about cinema it is a communal experience as well and that has been at the center of a lot of decisions going forward,” says Okwuosa.

Moses Babatope and Kene Okwuosa

Redefining The Cinema Experience In Nigeria

To be the leader of Nigeria, Africa’s biggest and most populous nation, there are several political nuances to be borne in mind. Firstly, Nigeria with an estimated population of about 210 million people, is made up of tribes with over 500 languages. That means to assume power, one has to be able to have a wide base of support and in the past that support has shifted between the majority Christian South and the predominantly Muslim North.



In order words, if a southern (Christian) leader emerges, he strategically appoints a Northern (Muslim) Vice President and vice versa, in order to increase the amount of support needed to facilitate a peaceful rule.



So, when Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a Muslim political godfather and someone widely considered as instrumental in the fight for Nigeria’s democracy, decided to run for the country’s top political position under the All Progressives Congress Party (APC) by appointing another Muslim second in command, there was uproar across the political ecosystem in Nigeria.



Many believed that the strategic blunder would prove to be his undoing but against all odds, Tinubu has emerged victorious in the recently concluded election amassing 37% of the total votes with over 8.8 million votes. His closest competition, Atiku Abubakar under Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) secured 29% of the votes with 6.9 million votes and the surprise entry of Peter Obi under the Labour Party coming in at third place with 25% of votes accounting for 6.1 million.



However, the win is currently being disputed by the opposing parties.



There were widespread reports of many Nigerians not being able to vote due to late starts and violence in several polling stations. Furthermore, the new innovative solution introduced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) reportedly did not work. The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), which was meant as a solution to remove election rigging and provide transparency in the voting system, was allegedly not working across several polling stations.



In all, 93 million Nigerians were registered to vote and out of those, 87 million people collected their voting cards ahead of the elections. However, INEC reports the lowest voter turnout since 1999.



“So where did all the people who queued for hours to collect their voter cards go? Some spent over five hours in lines just so they could vote and you mean to tell me they went through all that problem only to not vote? Impossible. The problem was the disruptions at the polling stations,” says Tonye Bello, an MBA student in Lagos.



“Like many other elections, this election has many setbacks, ranging from the snatching of ballot boxes, stuffing of ballot papers to the inability of INEC staff to upload results at the polling units. This last reason has made many to doubt the independent electoral umpire,” says Paul Alaje, a Senior Economist and Partner with SPM Professionals.



Despite these concerns, there are also many who believe the results are not that far-fetched. Tinubu is not new to politics or governance for that matter. He brought widespread innovation and growth under his tenure as a two-term governor of Lagos State. Widely respected as a political strategist, he was instrumental in securing the Presidency for outgoing Muhammadu Buhari and one of the few leaders who have made friends across the Niger.



“The just-concluded presidential election was not without setback for Senator Tinubu even though he won the majority vote, he didn&#8217;t win the absolute majority as declared by INEC. This is because Senator Tinubu is a Muslim from the South who chose another Muslim as his Vice President from the North; this has affected the usual practice of Christian-Muslim, Muslim-Christian president and vice president in Nigeria,” says Alaje.



The Christian-Muslim population in Nigeria is almost 50% of the entire population. This was perhaps why it was not a surprise when Tinubu lost his strongest hold, Lagos State, a place that he has always won elections since 1999, to Peter Obi.



In any case, if the win is upheld by the Electoral Commission, Tinubu has his work cut out for him. He must immediately grapple with declining economic growth in Nigeria as well as insecurity across many parts of the country alongside unprecedented youth unemployment. The general opinion of Nigeria’s youth is that a younger president would have been preferred instead of the political old guards who are wealthy and as a result out of touch with the needs of the everyday Nigerian.



“As this announcement was made, many lovers and believers of Tinubu, as well as his party celebrated his win, however the critical stakeholders have kept mute till now. The Nigerian youth and business communities have not made any official comments regarding this victory. At best we can say, victory has been declared depending on each person&#8217;s perspectives and political affiliation,” says Alaje.



The coming weeks will be critical to see if this win is upheld or Nigerians are made to return to the polls for a second time.

Election In Nigeria

Tinubu Declared Winner In Africa’s Biggest Economy But Victory Disputed

On February 25, Nigerians voted for their next President in what was perhaps the most contested elections in the country’s history. The people hope the new leader will solve the many ills currently plaguing Africa’s biggest economy. Some reactions on the just-concluded polls.



The 2023 Nigerian elections, held on February 25 and largely peaceful with 93 million registered voters, were significant for a number of reasons. Firstly, it was the first time in the country’s history that none of the candidates vying for the top seat was an incumbent or a former military leader.



It was also the first time a candidate not affiliated with either of the leading two parties – All Progressives Congress (APC) and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) – is seemingly in poll position.



That candidate is businessman and two-time governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, running under the Labour Party. His teeming youth followers, who call themselves ‘Obedients’, are hoping to usurp power from the ruling two-party power paradigm by leveraging the power of social media.



“The only person that has shown capacity, capability and interest to solve these problems and make Nigeria great is no other than the Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi. He would definitely win this 2023 presidential election as he has shown that he would be the voice of the everyday Nigerian citizen. Major polls including Bloomberg and Anap have shown that Peter Obi is the choice of the Nigerian people and would most likely win this election,” comments Balami Isaac David, an aviator and business executive who defected from the PDP party.



Obi presents a refreshing proposition for Nigeria’s disenfranchized youth population. He has been known to fly economy class instead of business class whenever he travels by air and has shunned the large entourage his wealthy counterparts are known for – perhaps a signal to his followers that he will manage Nigeria’s vast resources with financial prudence. This, among other things, has also won him support from key Nigerian personalities such as author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and former President Olusegun Obasanjo. However, he has his work cut out for him.



Nobody has ever won an election in Nigeria without being a candidate of the two leading parties. And the competition is as stiff as it can get.



Bola Tinubu, 70, the flagbearer for the APC party, is widely known as a political kingpin and former governor of Lagos State and has immense influence in the south-western region of Nigeria and along with his deep pockets, is seen as a shoo-in for the top seat by most political pundits.



The third candidate, equally formidable, is Atiku Abubakar, 76, a former vice president of Nigeria who is attempting to win for the sixth time and is also popular in the north and equally wealthy. These two candidates are seen by many as veterans in the political landscape with the power and influence to make things happen in Nigeria. But these are trying times.



The winner of the 2023 election will have to contend with a number of economic hardships and insecurities that have left the country’s 200 million inhabitants frustrated and in desperate need for a solution. One of the major concerns is the shortage of cash in the economy as the country’s central bank has swapped its old notes and restricted distribution of the new currency notes in the country in what many believe is an attempt to prevent over-hoarding of cash by wealthy political parties and corruption in the election process.



“People are at their worst this time around because of shortages and non-availability of cash, fuel scarcity and routine events that have destabilized every structure in the society. While everyone is struggling to adapt to the changes and perceived temporary challenges, everyone is unhappy with the



timing of the government&#8217;s monetary policy even though it may well be in good faith,” observes Tonye Rex Idaminabo, a lawyer and reputation management expert in Nigeria.



There are also wider factors to consider. For instance, the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 significantly impacted Nigeria.



The ongoing war in Ukraine has also exacerbated the situation and created significant challenges when it comes to security. This is evident in the frequent cases of kidnapping, banditry and insurgency in the north-east and north-west regions of the country. Also, recent natural disasters such as flooding, which has posed significant risks of food shortages, threaten the country’s food security and all this is against a backdrop of rising inflation.



Dauda Lawal is a governorship candidate for the PDP government and former banker looking to win the Zamfara State seat. Key to his agenda was addressing the issue of insecurity that would prevent millions from voting due to fear of violence.



“Insecurity has remained one of the most significant concerns. This is primarily because, without security, other vital sectors cannot thrive. In past and recent years, there has been an increase in concerns about electoral violence, voter intimidation, election rigging, and voter safety,” says Lawal.



He also highlights the decline in education and healthcare systems, and youth employment as another dominant concern for Nigerians.



“These sectors and systems have been plagued by challenges such as inadequate funding, poor infrastructure, inadequate teacher training, and a shortage of healthcare workers, resulting in a cycle of poverty, unemployment, and underdevelopment. Overall, these issues and concerns are interrelated. Still, failing to address them has resulted in declining living standards for many Nigerians despite our wealth and numerous natural resources,” says Lawal.



For many, the problem is a leadership issue. As Lawal puts it: “Bad leadership and the inability of our leaders to rise to their responsibilities has been one of the major contributing factors to Nigeria’s plight. Nigeria, therefore, needs a good captain to navigate it in the right direction. We need leadership that promotes a sincerity of purpose. This is because the country faces numerous challenges that require genuine commitment and dedication.”



“What Nigerians need is enlightened and selfless leadership who mean what they say and say what they mean,” adds Idaminabo.



David believes that these issues have forced Nigerians to look for ways to solve these issues themselves. He also highlights good leadership as the first integral solution.



“The Nigerian people currently need a good leader, a leader who would feel their plight and solve it, a leader who is not corrupt, who would not steal their national treasures for himself, a leader that they can at least trace his wealth, a leader who is strong enough to face the situations ahead, a leader who would provide education and make it accessible, a leader who has a track record of improved healthcare, a leader they can trust and speak to, a leader that would ensure that no Nigerian is more Nigerian than any Nigerian,” says David.



According to the Financial Times, Nigeria’s population in the next 25 years could reach 400 million, surpassing the United States as the world’s third most populated country.



“The major challenges faced by Nigerians is as related to geopolitical zone, occupational jurisdiction, age group and even religion and gender. I call these major issues that would be the climbing force to the upcoming elections the Big 7 and these issues are: the economic crisis of the country, insecurity, corruption, restructuring, unemployment, inadequate basic amenities and education,” says David.



“The economy of the country is currently in so much disarray that even the purchasing power of the country’s currency has been reduced to almost nothing. This is a country that once had its currency higher than the dollar but as at today, the Naira cannot even stand side by side with currencies in Africa that do not even have as close to the manpower or economic and natural resources controlled by Nigeria.”



As a country that doesn’t produce so much but consumes a lot, the economic viability of the country has excruciatingly depreciated leading to a rise in prices and reducing the country’s currency purchasing value.



“This has affected everything in the country, from feeding, to trading, from studies to even hand skills, everything is on the rise as the inflation value is currently outrageous. Nigeria’s GDP has seriously dropped and now growing at a very slow pace and the annual inflation rate has increased to a whopping 21.82% which has left citizens scampering for survival,” says David.



There are a number of factors to consider. The new leader of Africa’s most populous economy will have to not only exhibit the right leadership skills to move Nigeria swiftly out of these challenges, but also will need to gain the confidence and trust of a population in the political system.



So, the question remains who will emerge leader?



“Three different polls have been released with the latest being POLAF predicting that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar would win the elections with 38% of the votes, thereby winning the presidential elections. Another Bloomberg poll which predicted a Buhari victory in 2015 now says Peter Obi could win with a resounding 60% of the votes. Then, a poll by a group of data analysts said the ruling party candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu would win the elections,” says Idaminabo.

Nigeria General Elections

‘Nigerians Need Enlightened And Selfless Leadership’: Africa’s Biggest Economy Votes For Change

Ghana’s Dikan Centre that opened recently was a result of Paul Ninson’s need to get African creatives to tell the story only they knew best about the continent.



For as long as Paul Ninson can remember, storytelling has always been a part of his DNA. Growing up in Kumasi in southern Ghana with his grandparents, Ninson would fall in love with storytelling by listening to the many community and historical accounts of his village told by his grandparents and decided even from then, that he would contribute in some way to telling his own story.



“I was always looking for a way to express myself. I used to draw a lot when I was a kid and I studied visual arts in school. When I reached university, I studied textiles but it wasn’t enough for me,” says Ninson.



One day, a friend of his returned from the United States with a camera and that is when things began to get interesting. Ninson was introduced to a new world of photography. At the time, he had a side hustle creating graphic designs and printing T-shirts but he decided to wrap that business up and sold his iphone to get himself a camera too.



“I decided to use photography as a medium to express myself and tell my own story. I wanted to tell real stories of my experience as a Ghanaian and my experience as a young man growing up in Ghana and the things I know and things I’ve seen and things I am motivated to talk about,” says Ninson.



To differentiate himself from the other Ghanaian photographers, Ninson adopted some ideas from a book he read called Blue Ocean Strategy. At the time, he was making ends meet as a photographer by taking images during events but he knew photojournalism was his true calling.



Instead of documenting his experiences in Ghana, Ninson decided to invest in telling more of a pan-African story. He saved up money and traveled to a village in Kenya famous for having no men and started snapping.



“My content was different and the pictures I was posting was different. That uniqueness earned me an admission to one of the best photography schools in New York, the International Center of Photography,” recalls Ninson.



All of a sudden, a world of opportunities opened up to Ninson. He spent his free time at the New York public library where he began to immerse himself in the thousands of books and images available to him. That was when he had his biggest epiphany about photography.



“I loved books and the library had pictures of thousands of images about Africa including one of Kwame Nkrumah (Ghanaian politician) which I had never seen before in my life. So, it triggered me to find out why these pictures existed in America thousands of miles away but not in Ghana or Africa for that matter. And that is how the idea of a photo library began.”



Ninson already knew he did not want to graduate and jump into the hustle and bustle of feeding the beast that was the American media industry.



“I did not want to join a queue of photographers waiting to just sell images to the New York Times for example. I was thinking about media in the grand scheme of things and I wanted to build my own ecosystem in Ghana rather than be in a queue and be a supplement to other institutions,” says Ninson.



Today, that small dream has evolved into “the biggest photo library in Africa” as Ninson calls it, the Dikan Center, which opened in December last year with 30,000 books. Ninson has built a media landscape in Ghana to finally empower him and other creatives to tell their own stories and also make



a living out of it. He began by sending books back home and started crowd-funding to raise $1 million to kick-start the center.



“I want to provide visual education for Africans. Now we are more than a library. We have education programs, we have a gallery that stands as a means of distribution. We also have a story lab and studios and a community center which is a space for people to come and enjoy free internet and resources for everyone to hang out and collaborate,” says Ninson.



Africa’s story has in the past always been narrated by outsiders and for people like Ninson, Africans are perfectly capable of telling their own stories. That initial love for storytelling which has followed him all his life has today mushroomed into a movement bringing together thousands of Africa-centric images told through the power of a lens and perhaps most importantly, by African creatives.

Screenshot 2023-02-23 at 14.06.05

Retelling The African Story Frame By Frame, The Man Behind Ghana’s Biggest Photo Library

Nigerian entrepreneur Adeshola Cole of Tritek Consulting on the road to achieving the milestone.



Adeshola Cole is no stranger to hard work and perseverance. When she was just two years old, she was sent to a foster home in Birmingham in the United Kingdom (UK) where in her 10 years, she experienced bullying and severe racism.



“I was the only black child within that village and was constantly ridiculed because of the way I looked. It was a lot of bullying. I think that’s why I am who I am today because I am quite a strong a person and I am not afraid to fight for what I want,” says Cole.



By age 12, her parents relocated Cole back to Nigeria where she lived until graduating from Lagos State University with a degree in literature and English before moving back to the UK. Throughout those years, Cole had a passion for the arts and dreamed of becoming an actor one day. But as life would have it, it was a career in tech that would eventually give Cole her true purpose in life.



That realization did not come easily to her. From doing several odd jobs in the UK upon her return to make ends meet like cleaning hotels as well as working as a chambermaid and working for a betting company for about three years, Cole found herself working in the financial services sector.



“That was the eye-opener that I needed from a professional perspective. I joined NatWest Bank. I started off as a cashier and worked my way up to be the bank manager. That role really opened me up to customer service and leadership and responsibility because I had to manage so many people with different levels of expertise.”



After a 10-year stint with the bank, Cole became frustrated with the limitations of the financial industry for people of color.



A friend of hers suggested she look at project management and business analysis and on completing the course, Cole found her true calling.



“I became a project manager and from there I just had the passion for helping a lot of people and mentored a lot of aspiring professionals who went on to get numerous jobs within tech. In March 2017, Tritek consulting was birthed and as they say the rest is history.”



Today, Cole is a mentor and coach recognized for her work in helping the black community transition into the tech space. Her firm is a project management and business analysis company that provides training and practical work experience with mentorship support. The company has grown from just two customers about five years ago to over 3,000 candidates on the platform with over 500 success stories and 180 of those testimonials coming last year alone.



“Ultimately the goal is to help people get into tech and our numbers have increased to over 200 percent post Covid. Having a vision and going with that vision to see it grow is a huge motivation in itself.”

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200% Post-Covid Growth Helping The Black Community Transition Into Tech

Abdul Karim Abdullah, founder and CEO of Afrochella, on Ghana’s popular music and arts festival and that it will return with a new name.



“It all started out as a way to connect with African-Americans in Ghana,” says Abdul Karim Abdullah, CEO of Afrochella, a festival celebrating Africa’s diverse culture that will be rebranded as AfroFuture.



“I noticed there were limited daytime events [where] people can engage and speak to each other,” adds the founder about the beginnings of what has become Ghana’s biggest music festival over the Christmas period.



Abdullah, who also holds a day job working for an international pharmaceutical company as a clinical trial manager for cancer research, was born in the Bronx, New York, where his father and mother, who are Ghanaians, run a restaurant and a trading business respectively.



Growing up in New York, Abdullah was always immersed in the African community. Over the years, he had a dream to re-create some of the carnival events he attended in New York back in Africa where the community would come together to connect. Little did he know that his dream would turn into one of the biggest social events on the African social calendar attracting some of the biggest global superstars from the likes of Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Dave Chappelle and many more to the shores of Ghana.



But for Abdullah, this has been a slow and well thought-out journey.



“When we started the festival, I knew it had to be profitable and I still needed to keep my day job in order to live the lifestyle I wanted to live. But I am also passionate about the job that I do and I never thought I was going to fall in love with cancer research until I started the program in 2011.”



In 2014, after a hiatus of several years away from Ghana, Abdullah returned home over the holidays and had his first epiphany of creating an event bringing the diaspora together when they visited Ghana.



“Secondly, I am a very avid Twitter user and a couple of people from the diaspora were complaining that at Christmas, you come to Ghana and party and go and there is no benefit. I would see that people saw that friends were all coming to Ghana or Nigeria but they never had time to connect with each other on the ground,” says Abdullah.



Three years later, Abdullah and his team decided to do something about it. Prior to this, they had started a business to create Afro-inspired events in New York and they were keen to expand to Ghana.



After several iterations of the concept, they decided to create a festival where people could learn from each other and most importantly, drive the benefits to the people in Ghana as well as those from abroad. And just like that, Afrochella was born. The first event was a steep learning curve for the team. They had no money to hire the big artists so they decided on a strategy to focus on the emerging artists in Ghana who had the potential to be the next big thing.



“What I saw was there was a number of rising artists who were amazing at what they did and I noticed that we just wanted to do an event but we didn’t have any purpose behind it. So those rising star artists inspired me and I wanted to develop something. On December 28 2017, we had our first Afrochella.”



With no proper funding, Abdullah knew he had to get creative to get local businesses interested in partnering with them. They incorporated cultural elements that attracted startups in Ghana to partner with the festival. Today, those rising artists are some of Ghana’s biggest names.



“We only anticipated 2,500 people but we got 4,700 people so our expectations doubled and people traveled from all over the place just for one day.”



But Abdullah was not ready to celebrate just yet.



“We told ourselves, until we repeat what we achieved three times, we will not think this is worth pursuing. In year two, we grew from 4,700 to 12,500 in a stadium and that was the year we got a lot of partnerships and we had the endorsement of the Ghana Tourism Board. In 2019, we became the anchor event for The Year of Return [campaign] and that took us from 12,500 to 16,000 people and we had so many worldwide celebrities and tables sold out completely and we were overwhelmed with the amount of support we got,” says Abdullah.



Afrochella had ushered in a new wave of party-goers and cultural aficionados in Ghana. Five festivals later and the festival is still a hit with Ghanaians, African-American celebrities and the diaspora.



In 2022 though, they drew backlash from a much more established festival in the United States. Organizers of Coachella, the hugely-popular annual music and arts desert festival, reportedly filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Afrochella on the basis of leveraging its intellectual property and calling Afrochella the “Coachella of Africa”.



“We cannot really comment on the status of the lawsuit at this time as it is still ongoing but what I will say is we are in a good place,” comments Abdullah.



The brand also offers curated tours across Ghana for those wanting to experience the country’s heritage. Their vision is a lot more streamlined now.



“We have been approached for equity but for us it’s all about keeping the integrity of the event so we haven’t pursued that. We have had partnerships with Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, Sony music, Apple music and Hennessey. We also didn’t know who to hire. We had to understand the different roles like health and safety, production, source the different festival managers we needed, security check points and barricades,” says Abdullah.



The brand is still going strong, he attests, confirming that Afrochella will be back as AfroFuture.



“The festival is in a great place! We are ushering in a new era of gap-bridging for the black diaspora.”



As 2022 closed with new partnerships, from Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty to American rap sensation Meek Mill taking the stage, Afrochella has put Ghana on the festival map with the country’s tourism industry reaping the rewards.

#TwitterVoices Dinner: #AfricaToTheWorld

Bringing The World To A Festival In Ghana

<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Topline</h2>



As Nigeria gears up for elections on February 25, the question its over 200 million inhabitants will be desperately seeking an answer to will be, which presidential aspirant has what it takes to move the country out of its current economic crisis – defined by high inflation, diminishing foreign reserves, high insecurity in the North and falling oil prices. The country has not recovered post-pandemic.



For millions of voters affected by the economic hardships, the elections present an opportunity to find a candidate who can finally move the country forward and usher in a new age of prosperity. The 2023 elections to determine the President and Vice President have become more significant than ever.



In her speech honoring the country’s 62nd Independence Day last year, Nigeria’s First Lady Dr Aisha Muhammadu Buhari apologized for the harsh economic realities, saying “the regime might have not been the perfect one”.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">Key Facts</h2>



Of the 18 potential presidential candidates, only three hopefuls reportedly stand a realistic chance of getting the top seat. Nigeria’s top two parties are the All Progressives Congress (APC) and People’s Democratic Party (PDP), who have traded power since Nigeria’s first democratic elections in 1999. The frontrunners are Bola Ahmed Tinubu, 70, for APC and Atiku Abubakar, 76, for the PDP.



Both candidates have years of experience in Nigerian politics. Tinubu, widely known as the godfather of Nigerian politics and kingmaker, was a former governor of Lagos State as well as a former senator of the federal republic of Nigeria. Abubakar was also the former Vice President of Nigeria during Olusegun Obasanjo’s presidency.



And hoping to upset these two candidates is Peter Obi, 61.



A wealthy businessman who exited the PDP party last year, Obi is running under the relatively unknown Labour Party (LP) and has been focused on galvanizing Nigeria’s teeming youth population by leveraging social media as a key strategy. He is also a former Governor for Anambra State. His experience in the business world and understanding of the Nigerian political landscape make him the perfect candidate for the job, according to his supporters.



And while many believe it will be a tall order to unseat the two leading political parties, the anger, frustration and dire economic outlook faced by the Nigerian youth that account for about 70% of the population, according to recent figures from Worldometer, makes Obi a viable candidate to potentially upset the power dynamics in Africa’s most populous economy.

Election In Ondo State

The Nigerian Elections Coming Up This Month: Quick Facts

Rwandan-Canadian Charles Shima is deploying technology to create immersive cultural experiences for tourists in Africa. His dream? To build a unicorn in the travel sector.



Charles Shima was a young boy when he had a gun pointed at him at the height of the genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994. Luckily, he survived and was able to leave the country, which he loved, to tell his tale.



Destiny made him cross the high seas to the greener pastures of Canada, but little did he know he would return, almost 25 years later, and instead of being faced with just horrific memories, also see new hope in the East African country he once called home.



“I saw the changes that had happened in the country at that time and also the many opportunities you notice when you are in Africa. I had an ‘aha!’ moment and the idea was tourism and travel.”



This epiphany resulted in ZaNiheza, a travel marketplace for immersive experiences connecting travelers all over the world with verified local curators in Africa and beyond.



“I have always been passionate about the cultures of the world. I started building ZaNiheza as a tour operating company in Rwanda,” says Shima to FORBES AFRICA.



Shima fell in love with Africa again. The journey back home had unearthed a new passion to rebuild Rwanda with the goal of providing opportunities for the youth as well.



“When I arrived in Canada, there was a lot of bias towards Africans. I was no longer Charles Shima but just another black man. So, you have to basically fight for any opportunity you have. The success you have as a black person in Canada is only related to sports or music. And I thought ‘if someone can build a Microsoft, why not me; if Elon Musk can go to the moon, why not me?’ That made me feel if I ever built a company, it would have to change the world.”



ZaNiheza was launched in 2019 with the vision to change how the world experienced Africa. Shima was ready to start laying the foundation to build the next African unicorn until things went sideways. By March 2020, the Covid pandemic hit and the travel industry all over the world came to a complete standstill.



“We continued building this vision that goes beyond a tour operator company and my vision is global. So, I was thinking how can we bring the culture of Africa to the world and what we did was to build a global channel creating content and original shows about travel and [by] talking to the young women and men who are making a difference in Rwanda first,” says Shima.



Shima and his team continued to build bespoke travel packages in anticipation of the world reopening again for travel.



“We are in over seven countries in Africa and… on our way building the next unicorn in the travel sector. This is something that already exists in other countries like Europe etc, but when it comes to Africa there is no company that is really doing this.”



The company also has a presence in Vancouver, Canada, where they recently qualified for a startup competition that raised over $20,000 in funding for the business.



“What sets me apart is how we want to market Africa. It’s not just about wildlife. We need to go to the grassroots and then use the technology to make an impact. In Africa, your mindset has to change. You need to build from scratch and have the patience and drive and passion when everyone is going to say you are crazy. Seeing Africa through our eyes is my focus,” says Shima.



Shima says he has invested over $50,000 of his own money into the business which has gone into building the technology as well as creating the supply. The company is currently working with local travel curators in African countries. The young man from Rwanda has come far.

Screenshot 2023-01-24 at 18.13.47

Beyond Safaris: Digitalizing Travel In Rwanda

The West African nation saw a slew of events and international acts over Christmas.



Despite Ghana’s economic woes in 2022, it ended the year as a drawcard for international tourists over the festive period.



Last year, the West African country had seen inflation rising to over 40% as well as its credit rating relegated to Junk status by Moody’s because of its inability to pay back creditors and the threat of substantial losses for private bond holders. This had consequently brought the country to the doors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout.



The tourism sector, however, seems to have maintained its momentum; it has also been a key driver for foreign direct investment ever since Ghana’s Year of the Return campaign that saw a successful run in 2019. The campaign was a call for all Africans in the diaspora to return to the motherland and reconnect with their roots; a call marking 400 years since the first recorded enslaved Africans in the United States. And the diaspora heeded that call.



Over 237,000 visitors flocked to the shores of Ghana the Christmas of 2019 with the Ministry of Tourism estimating that about $1.9 billion was pumped into the Ghanaian economy. And it seems the trend has continued into 2022.



With an endless list of festivals including Afrochella, Detty December and the Black Star Line Festival, which was created by American rappers Vic Mensa and Chance the Rapper bringing international collaborations, the country was reportedly a favored spot for American celebrities and the diaspora over Christmas.



“We had over 50,000 people show up for our first-ever Black Star Line event alongside American superstars like Dave Chappelle, Erykah Badu, Jeremih, T-Pain and several top artists. This is history in the making. I think Ghana’s reputation for hospitality and the peaceful and tranquil environment is a major reason why the diaspora loves to come here,” says Mensa to FORBES AFRICA.



This has also helped the hospitality sector.



“With a large number of tourists visiting Ghana throughout the year… our global attractions present boundless opportunities for Ghanaians to display our culture, creativity and diversity within the hospitality industry,” says Nadia Takyiwaa-Mensah, a Ghanaian entrepreneur and author, to FORBES AFRICA.



Official figures from the Ministry of Tourism confirm that over 400,000 visitors flocked to the shores of Ghana in the first half of 2022.



“Innovation and originality need to remain at the forefront leading us to curate unique experiences through to opening boutique hotels. Ghana’s tourism authority aimed to drive over one million tourists to Ghana in 2022, whilst also increasing internal tourism; the latter we witnessed during and post-Covid. Investments and development within this sector are paramount,” adds Takyiwaa-Mensah.



The country is hoping the tourism and hospitality sectors will continue to grow and provide some relief for the economic crises Ghana is currently facing.



In December, the IMF reached a Staff-Level Agreement on a $3 billion, three years extended credit facility with Ghana aimed at restoring macroeconomic stability.

High Angle View Of Illuminated Buildings In City

Economic Crises Apart, Why Ghana Drew Tourists Over The Festive Period

Ghana is fast fashion’s dumping ground, and unwanted apparel is throwing up on the beaches leading to an environmental crisis.



At Oxford Circus in the heart of London, Rebecca Mossop, a store manager for George at ASDA, is getting ready to deliver October’s haul of clothing – that didn’t quite meet the exacting standards of the British consumer – to a delivery truck parked behind the store.



“The clothes are manufactured in China and sometimes some items fail quality control and that is where the store’s management decided on the idea of donating items of clothing they didn’t need to some of the poorest nations in Africa,” says Mossop.



The truck will make various stops on London’s high street retail stores before returning to its base in Lewisham, an area of southeast London. There, Michael Ofori, the Managing Director of A To Z Shippers, will ensure that the thousands of used and unused clothing piles are assembled and shipped to Tema, the largest port in Ghana, where his local team will transport it to the markets.



“We are providing a service to thousands of [informal female entrepreneurs] all over Ghana who rely on these items for their livelihoods,” says Ofori.



“But things have changed quite a bit from when we started this about 20 years ago. Back then, there was no fast fashion so the items that we had were of quality. Today, we have so many fast fashion brands and not to mention those individuals who can just set up their own stores online. The market is flooded and unfortunately it’s affecting the quality of stuff we send [off],” says Ofori.



Once loaded, the clothes get on shipping containers and are sent to the ports from where, after a month at sea, they reach the shores of Ghana.



According to the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC), in 2020, the top exporters of Used Clothing (worn clothing and articles) were the US, China, UK, Germany and South Korea, while the top importer of Used Clothing was Ghana. With a population of over 31 million, Ghana took in over $180 million of Used Clothing, with Ukraine, Pakistan and Nigeria following suit.



Shippers like Ofori’s initially were seen as providing a vital lifeline for women in Ghana’s informal markets – until the advent of fast fashion. Today, the reality is different.



A fairly new concept, fast fashion has been popularized by high-street brands selling in-vogue trends at record speeds for affordable prices. These items are made cheaply in bulk due to their ready-to-wear, prêt-à-porter nature to cater to the frequent purchasing habits of middle-class consumers with disposable incomes.



The impact of fast fashion on the environment is dire. According to statistics published by the United Nations Environment Programme and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the fashion industry is the second-most-polluting industry after the oil industry.



Where fast fashion is creating a tidy profit for Western manufacturers, in Africa, it is stifling the garments sector.



“We have seen most ladies buy the same items multiple times simply because once they wash the items, most of them lose their quality. This is no longer an issue as some of these items only cost about $5 and so the idea is once it’s worn out, a consumer will discard it and buy more items,” says Mossop.



In Ghana, Sarah Bonsu, a trader in the country’s largest market at Kantamanto, is a regular customer of A To Z Shippers from where she frequently sources various items to sell in the market.



Kantamanto is home to over 30,000 traders with millions of items bought and sold each week. Bonsu has been making a living here for the past 10 years. She usually spends an equivalent of $150 on goods she cannot inspect until they are delivered at her stall in the market.



“There is no point inspecting these clothes. It is literally by luck. If you get quality in one batch, the next batch could be completely rubbish. That is just the way things work,” says Bonsu.



Once at her shop, Bonsu laboriously sifts through the new items and picks what she calls “the first selection”.



“First selection is for the fresh clothes that go quickly. Usually these are not worn yet or do not have any stains etc. The second selection comprises the ones that we know customers will not want and will be difficult to sell,” says Bonsu.



Heaps of unwanted clothing have now resulted in an environmental crisis in Ghana. In 2019, over 65 million tons of used clothing was sent to Ghana and of that figure, about 40% was not sold and was discarded, as per a report by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.



These items notoriously end up in landfills or worse – in the sea.



“Most people abroad go to bed thinking they have done something good for Africans by discarding their unwanted clothing but the truth is it is actually harming our economy. Local manufacturers cannot compete with the cheap prices and most of the clothing sent is not wanted by Africans. They end up as waste in landfills like this all over the country,” says Ernest Ijawan, a manager of the Kpone landfill in Ghana.



The negative effects are being felt in other sectors of the economy as well.



In Labadi beach, Accra, Kofi Sarpong and his team of fishermen have set sail in the hopes of netting enough fish to sell at the local market in Osu, a large township in the heart of Accra. Along the shores of the beach are groups of young boys and some of the female hawkers waiting for a signal from Sarpong and his men, who have carefully laid fishing nets from the shoreline to the open sea.



On their signal, all 20 hands on the beach begin the tedious ordeal of pulling on the fishing nets that take almost two hours to finally haul on to the beach. For their hard work, they are rewarded with one huge barracuda and entwined in the nets, heaps of clothing that have been discarded in the sea.



“This has been the trend for us for the past couple of years. We lose our nets because they get tangled up with clothing from the local markets and we don’t even get the fish that we used to. We cannot survive on just one fish,” rues Sarpong.



The Or Foundation, a human rights and environmental NGO from the United States, estimates that it takes about 200 years to decompose textile waste. When such waste makes its way to the sea, they invariably destroy marine life as well as the livelihoods of people like Sarpong.



“This means that when these clothes are not burned, they can be found everywhere because there are simply not enough landfills to deal with the waste. They go on the beach and form what we call



clothing tentacles and these trap fish and stop their growth. Fishermen all over Accra are struggling to make ends meet,” says Samuel Oteng, a volunteer at Or Foundation.



Ghana’s second-hand clothing market is second only to Pakistan with a global market share of 5.1% according to the Tony Blair Institute of Global Change. The country is in a Catch 22 situation when it comes to this issue. On the one hand, there is little it can do by way of a complete ban due to the number of consumers on the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum who rely on these textiles for their livelihood. On the other hand, the inflow of textiles is exacerbating an already difficult environmental crisis ultimately killing local economies like manufacturing and fishing.



There are those who believe that maybe a partial ban might go a long way in curtailing this crisis. Others opine that this presents a great opportunity for the recycling sector in Ghana. But whichever way the country decides to go, the one thing everyone agrees on is that, something needs be done sooner than later to limit the damage of the growing textile dump in a deteriorating economic climate.

Garments factory waste dumping sites

Rags, Not Riches: Why Ghana Is Fast Fashion’s Dumping Ground

Through Naija Comm, Texas-based Eno Oduok is challenging career stigmas in the Nigerian community and educating people about professions they didn’t think existed.



Providing alternative career options to professionals, first generation Nigerian-American Eno Oduok has broken the norm herself.



She is the founder of Naija Comm, an online space catering to Nigerians in the creative industries looking for career paths other than what is considered “traditional” in their community.



“Texas has the [biggest] Nigerian community in America so I was always surrounded by people who shared the same cultural heritage as me. The only thing that was different was a lot of people were in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields and were doctors, engineers or lawyers and in Nigerian communities and the overall African community, there is always an emphasis on pursuing traditional paths,” says Oduok.



With a strong affinity for the media and creative arts such as graphic design, communication and social media, Oduok struggled to find role models or peers in her community who shared the same interests.



“They were all in pharmacy or something traditional. I’ve seen probably one or two people who did arts but it wasn’t emphasized enough… I was looking for Nigerians in communications and couldn’t see [any] but if you look up Nigerians in medicine, so many pages pull up online,” attests Oduok, a Bachelor of Arts/Science graduate from the University of Houston in Texas.



That was the catalyst to create the first platform to connect and empower Nigerian creatives and professionals in overlooked fields such as communications, business and the arts.



“Naija Comm is a community-based media platform and creative hub here to break barriers and challenge stigmas in the community. It started a few days before #EndSARs went viral online last year and has been growing since. We have had various guest speakers such as Olympian basketball player Erica Ogwumike, Bel-Air actor Olly Sholotan, and other creative entrepreneurs.”



In addition to this, Naija Comm has also partnered with global streaming platforms like HBO, spotlights the accomplishment of Nigerian celebrities like Grammy award-winner Burna Boy as well as provides virtual networking events, newsletters and more. The platform, purely social, exists on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.



“We made it on the Forbes 30 under 30 2022 list in the media category for the US which was a great moment. There are a lot of communities where STEM is heavily emphasized but we have other non-Nigerians on our platform as well. We serve a bigger purpose and are challenging career stigmas and teaching people about the careers they are not accustomed to,” says Oduok.



From collaborating with WhatsApp to highlighting the achievements of Nigerian-Greek basketball superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, Oduok wants to amplify voices and stories in the Nigerian creative sector through billboards, reels, blog posts, and more.

Author: Peace Hyde

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA