MEET CHIMEZIE IMO; THE RISING STAR OF THE NOLLYWOOD SCREEN--- CELEBRATING PASSION SERIES. By Michael Isaac.

Chimezie also known as chimex is a 24 years old actor, singer and dancer who has a huge passion for acting; born in Lagos state, the Imo state origin had his primary education in Lagos state before moving to Abuja with his mother and a few other siblings. He started acting as a child when he took up the role for an absent member of a drama group in church that he was not part of, after a very thrilling performance and much appreciation from the church and drama members; he decided to join the group.  He has been acting since that time till now but majorly on theater.

He's advent to screen came to light during and after the popular Nigerian TV show ‘The

Next Movie Star’ in 2013 when he emerged the fourth runner up amongst the final top nine. The show was followed by a block buster movie ‘learning curves’ produced by Ndu Scott and directed by Chris Ode in the same year.  Chimezie has starred in several movies and TV shows over the past few years.

In 2014, he starred in another block buster movie titled ‘Nne’ where he featured with several other stars of Nollywood. The young entertainer is also a student of applied ecology at The Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi; and according to him it’s never really been easy combining the both to fit perfectly owing to the fact that the school is located in the northern part of the country while the heart of Nollywood is usually in the south.

He has also featured in several short movies like ‘Aviation man’ which was released in 2013, more of Chimezie is expected from his fan as he revealed that he will be appearing in several TV shows not released yet. In 2016, he was also featured in two block buster movies, Kumbaya the Musical Movie and Mustapha.

Mustapha is a story about a young Hausa boy who was awarded a scholarship to study in University in Lagos state, Mustapha was tagged a ‘boko haramist’ because of his religion and personal values. It brings to light the stereotyping against the Islamic religion as being a religion of violence instead of peace. The movie was produced and directed by Umani Elijah and was released on September 2016.

WRITTEN BY Michael Isaac( Speakpreneur Content) 

ideas nexus: FRENCH WEEK 2016; CREATING AN ATMOSPHERE TO BOOST ...

ideas nexus: FRENCH WEEK 2016; CREATING AN ATMOSPHERE TO BOOST ...: It’s here again!!! The2016 French Week celebration, starting from Friday 18 th to the 25 th of November, 2016. This year’s event...

FNCCI HOLDS SUMMIT TO EXPOSE OPPORTUNITIES IN THE NIGERIA AGRIBUSINESS SPACE

The Franco-Nigerian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in its bid to foster trade and investment relations between France and Nigeria on Tuesday 25^th April, 2016 held a 1-day Business summit at the food of sun hall of the Eko Hotels and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos. Tagged: NIGERIA BEYOND OIL; A FOCUS ON THE NIGERIAN AGRIBUSINESS SPACE.

The event was attended by the Consul General of the French Consulate Mr. Laurent Polonceaux, The Chairman of the Nigerian Agribusiness Group (NABG) Alhaji Sani Dangote, Dr. Emmanuel Ijewere, Coordinator NABG, representatives from the Association pour le Developpement des Echanges internationaux de Produits et Techniques Agroalimentaire”(ADEPTA) from France, and other key stakeholders in the Nigerian Agribusiness space.

The objective of the summit as stated by the Corporate Affairs representative of the Chamber, Mr. Moses Umoru is to appraise the fortunes and potentials of the agricultural sector of the Nigerian economy in line with the focus of the present administration in strengthening the neglected agricultural sector.

The Consul General in his welcome address stated that “Nigeria has over 80percent of its land viable for agricultural produce but uses less than 30percent. Given, is the reason why Nigeria is not self-sufficient in the area of food production”. He stated his confidence in the new administration of president Buhari and the drive to diversify the economy with strong focus in the area of agriculture.

 Alhaji Sani Dangote in his opening remarks emphasized that the dwindling fortune of the Nigerian oil price at this critical time and other economic realities facing the present administration has made the diversification agenda inevitable. He stress that Nigeria can attain food sufficiency if the present administration would continue in its drive to promoting agriculture and making it attractive for foreign investors. Dr. Emmanuel Ijewere, the coordinator of the NABG in his opening remarks stated that the French are the best farmers in the world and will help the country achieve its full potentials in its drive to improve its agriculture. “I think we will take this partnership with the French to the end of the road because they are one of the best farmers in the world and are also known as one of the most efficient in Europe. This opportunity we have is a continuation of what President Buhari signed as that was the first country he visited when he became president and he took the agricultural community along. Both presidents, Francois Hollande and Buhari insisted that private sectors in the industry must come together as they signed the agreement last year, he explained.

The representative from ADEPTA spoke on the partnership France is having with Nigeria in the area of agriculture which was sealed last year with the ADEPTA NABG agreement and the role France is playing in promoting cheap mechanized solutions for farmers in Nigeria.

Paper presentations were delivered by Dr. Kuforiji Afolabi; Dean Faculty of Agriculture, Federal polytechnic Bayelsa on THE REBIRTH OF AGRICULTURE IN NIGERIA , Dr. Sola Aliu; CEO Staolar Center for Entrepreneurship on INTRGRATED FARMING AND ITS IMPORTANCE IN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, Tokunbo Habeeb; Lagos State coordinator RMRDC on THE ROLE OF RMRDC IN PROMOTING AGRICULTURE IN NIGERIA.

The event was rounded off by a question and answer session where critical questions were asked by the participants on Agriculture in Nigeria.

Written by The Speakpreneur Content Team

Google To Train 400,000 Nigerians To Boost Jobs

The U.S. tech giant plans to train 400,000 Nigerians, 300,000 people in South Africa and 200,000 Kenyans, who will receive free digital training while another 100,000 people will be selected from other sub-Saharan Africa countries.

“Google is in Africa for the long haul and we are making an investment in talent,” Google South Africa country head Luke Mckend said. “We hope that the people trained will become pioneers in the field and do great things in digital for companies and for Google.”

The company has partnered with Livity Africa to develop training programs and is rolling out a new online education portal for learners in the region. “We’re also talking to a number of other potential partners across Africa with a view to scaling the digital skills training program and helping to reach even more young people in more countries,” Google said in a statement.

African Internet bandwidth increased 41 percent between 2014 and 2015, according to a TeleGeography Global Internet Geography report.

Research conducted by Google suggests Africa will have 500 million Internet users by 2020.

CELEBRATING PASSION: THE TEGA ODELE STORY..........By: Michael Isaac

   

Born on the 6^th of December 1995, in the hearts of Delta state, Nigeria, Tega spent his early childhood in Ughelli, Delta State, Nigeria where he attended Noble crest nursery and primary school. His love and passion for the track and field games were astounding even at his tender age, he would compete with peers in school and even at his local community.

Tega has shown leadership abilities even at his tender youthful age where he bagged the senior prefect position in his local secondary school, leading 29 other prefects to maintain orderliness in the school and serving as a role model for the other students. He also obtained his first school leaving certificate and his WAEC certificate in federal government college, Warri, Delta state.

In 2009, Tega was accepted into the University of Benin to study business administration where he graduated in 2013. His love and passion for athletics even waxed stronger when he became the assistant team captain of the University of Benin athletic club. upon his graduation, he also played some leadership role as expected.

  

               Athletic history

Tega has always loved to play sports and get involved in athletics even in from his primary school. Despite all the discouragement from family and friends at school when he spent so much time in the field and countless hours training for what he loved to do. His career as an athlete kicked off in the early months of 2012 where he was part of the athletes that partook in the All Nigeria South-South Games held in Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria from June 4-6, 2012. Tega stole the show when he was awarded two gold medals and one silver medal for 200M, 4x400M, and 4x100M race respectively.

In that same year, Tega was awarded another gold medal in the 18^th Nigeria National Sports Festival (tagged “Eko Games”) which was held in Lagos State, Nigeria from November 27^th to December 9^th 2012.

He has also won some international awards in various categories of running. Tega shows outstanding leadership abilities with his team mates, family and even friends. When asked what keeps him going? Tega would say it’s the “love and passion” for what he does that keeps him going.

At the 24th Nigeria Universities Games (NUGA) held at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria from February 2014, he stole the event with three gold medal awards for 200 meter, 4x400M in two places.

At twenty, Odele Tega has showed unique characters in various position and works of life, he has proven to be an outstanding individual who not only following his academic pursuit also followed his heart to do the thing he loves to do, balancing the two to fit right to the needs and expectation of family and friends.

Odele’s expectation in the nearest future is to hold the record for 200 meters and 100 meters at the Olympics within the next eight years.

WRITTEN BY: MICHAEL ISAAC(Speakpreneur Content)

FNCCI HOLDS BREAKFAST MEETING TO ANALYSE THE NIGERIAN FOREX POLICY

FNCCI JANUARY BREAKFAST MEETING

The Franco-Nigeria Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) held its 1st breakfast meeting of 2016 on  the 27th of January,2016 at the Eko hotel and Suites. The breakfast meeting, whose theme was NIGERIA FOREX POLICY AND IMPLICATION ON BUSINESSES was put together to dissect the Forex policy of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and address the concern expressed by investors, businessmen and women and also proffer solutions.

The event which began by 9am had in attendance The Commissioner of Industry and Commerce Lagos state; Hon Collins OGUNLEYE(Represented),Mr. Francais WIDMAR; Economic counselor to the French Consulate, Members of the French Consulate, Members of the Business France community,  Board members of FNCCI as well as business men and women.

The first presentation was made by Dr Andrew NEVIN(Chief Economist at PWC) on the NIGERIA ECONOMIC LANDSCAPE. By way of statistics and graphs, Dr Nevin highlighted  that large levels of public expenditure have opened up a fiscal deficit over the last few years and even projected to rise despite low oil revenues. Another statistics shows that failing oil price has place significant pressure on the exchange rate and the CBN responded by imposing several administrative measures leading to a widening of the official and parallel market rate. The CBN has allowed the Naira to depreciate by 25% since the start of 2014; with foreign exchange reserves failing by 30% over the same period.

Dr Nevin said the fast growing population of the mono-economy nation is responsible for these. He suggested an increase in tax and ensuring tax compliance especially by the big companies would go a long way in relaxing the situation.

Mr Akinsola DAWODU(Zonal Coordinator SMEDAN) made a presentation titled the Effect of Forex Policy on Small and Medium Enterprise. In his presentation he stated that the CBN didn't factor manufacturing process before introducing the Forex restrictions. He stated that the restrictions would further cause inflations as the prices of products will be passed to the final consumers. Mr Dawodu also stated that Nigeria which is an import dependent nation cannot afford to devalue her currency as the country is not producing a product that would attract buyers from other countries and SMEs are not well equipped by the government to produce these products.  However, the policy does have its advantages. Some of the advantages mentioned by Mr Dawodu are outlined as follows:

1.Nigeria businesses would be forced to look inward and manufacturers to source raw material internally. 2. Change of direction toward inward revenue generation. 3. Economy will be diversified thereby creating employment opportunity.

Mrs Elvira SALLERES(Managing Partner at Elvira Salleres and Co) in her presentation titled: The legal side of the Nigerian Forex policy pointed out a loophole in the policy. The CBN Act [Section 20 (1)] states that "The currency notes issued by the bank shall be legal tender in Nigeria at their face value for the payment of any amount". Refusal to accept the Naira as a means of payment will attract a fine of N50,000. "Provided the banks shall have powers to prescribe circumstances and conditions under which other currencies may be used as medium of exchange in Nigeria". - S 20 (5).

Mrs Salleras noted that the CBN did not define the legal tender. She also cited a case where "Parties can make an agreement or enter into a contract, to pay in foreign currency and a Nigeria court, can in its discretion award same accordingly" the statement continued by stating that "in international trade public policy demands that goods sold and delivered... should be paid for and that it is not right to make a foreign exporter... to lose out due to technicalities"

The event also featured a panelist/question and answer session presided over by Moses Umoru, Corporate and  commercial affairs FNCCI and a journalist from channels television. The panelist comprising of Dr. Nevin Andrews(PWC), Mr.Tayo Ogungbenro(KPMG), Chiefo Ejiofobiri(FIDELITY BANK),Mr. Folin OLivier(PROPACO)and Mrs Elvira Salleras(LEGAL PROFESSIONAL) fielded questions from businessmen and women in attendance.

WRITTEN BY SIMON GZARI AMANANJI(SPEAKPRENEUR CONTENT)