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Home Blog Page 6260

£150,000 Grant: UI Don, Ojebode, 14 Other African Researchers to Produce Reports for Improved Digital Freedom in Africa

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Professor Ayobami Ojebode of the Department of Communication and Language Arts and other African researchers in academic and industry are expected to produce reports that enhance Africans’ digital rights. According to the Institute of Development Studies situated at the University of Sussex, Professor Ojebode will be working with other researchers from Access Now, CARD Ethiopia, Amandla.mobi, the Association of Progressive Communications (APC), the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA), the Digital Society of Zimbabwe, New Zambian Innovations, the University of the Witwatersrand, HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, the University of Edinburgh and the University of Zambia.

Information from the Institute indicates that Professor Ojebode is among the network of researchers dubbed “the Digital and Technology Research Cluster” who will work on a research project that worth £150, 000 in funding. The project, according to the Institute, is being supported by UKRI – GCRF Digital Innovation for Development in Africa (DIDA).

“This collaborative research project includes activists, analysts, and practitioners with deep contextual knowledge into a multi-disciplinary research team. The network will begin by producing seven Country Digital Landscape Reports to scope the existing political and technological landscape in Nigeria, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

An analysis of existing capacity and gaps will inform the design of a broader programme of research beyond the inception year. We will use the Country Digital Landscape Reports to identify cross-cutting research themes and produce thematic reports that build the knowledge and capabilities of citizens to exercise, defend and expand the rights guaranteed to them in law but denied to them in practice.”

Information from the funder also indicates that the fund is allocated from a £1.5 billion fund to support cutting-edge research which addresses the problems faced by developing countries. Professor Ojebode has been deploying his skills, knowledge and experience in development communication and studies towards sustainable development in Nigeria and Africa since 2002.

Professor Ojebode and others are expected to deliver reports that equip Africans, especially people with significant interest in ensuring good governance and sustainable development on the continent by addressing development challenges in political and technological landscapes, with better resources and processes. Successful completion of the project means that the researchers would have opportunity to access parts of £19M allocated for six to eight projects for the 24 Network of Researchers by the UKRI – GCRF Digital Innovation for Development in Africa. According to the funder, “the projects in the second stage could be either a research project or enhanced network building through a ‘Network Plus’ grant.”

The Big Budget Disparity: Nigeria $28 Billion, South Africa $122 Billion

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President Buhari has signed the revised 2020 Nigeria budget into law. It comes down to $28 billion. If you assume a 70% performance, i.e. only 70% would be executed (Nigeria typically does 80% but I am modelling with 70% here as the virus would affect many things), the effective national budget for Nigeria, in 2020, is less than $20 billion.

Contrast that with South Africa which has a budget of $122 billion.

Interestingly, Nigeria has more than 3 times the population of South Africa. So, we are spending $20 billion for 200 million people when South Africa is spending $122 billion for 57 million people.

Do you see the disparity? 

President Muhammadu Buhari has signed the revised 2020 budget into law.

The signing on Friday of the N10.8 trillion budget took place at the State House’s council chambers.

The amended budget was approved by the National Assembly in June.

At the signing ceremony, Mr Buhari said the budget had to revised because of the effect of coronavirus on the nation’s economy.

He said the ministries, department and agencies will be given 15 per cent of their capital allocation by the end of July.

Source: South Africa budget

This has worsened since the MTBPS, however, the gross tax revenue for 2019/20 is still 5.5% up on last year. Budgeted expenditure for 2020/21 is R1. 95 trillion (2019/20 revised estimate: R1. 84 trillion)

MultiChoice (DStv, Showmax Pro) Takes European Football, Who Goes for African Leagues?

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Abdulahi Alausa, Edward Ansah, and others were regular names in secondary school when we could recite all the popular names of Nigerian league football players. From IICC Shooting Stars (now called Shooting Stars) to Iwuanyanwu Nationale (now called Heartland) to the beautiful Rangers, I knew many. Radio Nigeria was the key source as we hooked to radios to listen to the games.

When I made it to FUT Owerri, the first call was to visit Dan Anyiam stadium, and that was the day I met Kanu Nwankwo, the Papillo. He was not playing that day; it was a game with Julius Berger.

Then, as academic work mounted in FUTO, I forgot football. It was a lot of stress dedicating time for games with all the hassles of entering and leaving the stadium. Possibly, a TV program would have simplified that friction, providing an opportunity to stay home while connecting to the games via TV. Of course, over time, European football did just that and effected a disintermediation, disconnecting African football, via Supersport which is controlled by MultiChoice’s DStv.

MultiChoice, Amazon Prime or Netflix will likely win the next European football TV rights, for Africa. But who will go for Nigerian League and make it a show, not just football? When you watch Supersport, you do not watch football, you have a show. The Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) does not know how to package games yet. It may not make sense but for companies like iROKOtv, putting Nigerian and other African football leagues, as a show, not just football, could create a differentiation.

I still think Enyimba, Kano Pillars and others can offer good entertainment if we have a higher quality presentation of the games on TV. So, as we fret over DStv and its monopoly, there is a latent opportunity to get African football going.

This is the deal: Nigeria and broad African football could offer a real opportunity to any startup which can organize these games and make them better entertainment. We must not overly see football from the lens of DStv Supersport. Think of a startup with a focus on sports which can make these African games better shows.

MultiChoice’s DSTV Considers Dropping EPL and UEFA Rights in Nigeria As Loss and Pressure Mount from Government

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Alibaba Tops Facebook As the World’s Sixth Most Valuable Company

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Alibaba’s market value has risen above Facebook on the New York and Hong Kong markets, making the Chinese company the sixth most valuable in the world.

The ecommerce and cloud giant’s shares rose 10 percent in the Hong Kong market to close at a record HK$261.60, after it went up nine percent in New York overnight at US$257.68. Alibaba owned SCMP reported.

The gains gave the company about HK$5.614 trillion (US$720 billion) in market capitalization, above Facebook’s US$694.53 billion.

Analysts believe the development is as a result of coronavirus induced downturns in social media ads, and recent decision by businesses to pull their ads from Facebook in protest of its handling of hate and racial posts on the platform.

Alibaba’s stock has been on the “buy” recommendation by financial analysts, even at the target price of HK$307 per share.

Jeffries analysts led by Thomas Chong said Alibaba has shown strong execution in multiple business models enabling expectation of solid results in the June quarter.

“Alibaba shows strong execution with multiple business models, and is at the sweet pot of a recovery story backed by strong technological strengths. In the June quarter, we expect it to deliver solid results with core marketplace as a strong cash cow and customer management revenue offering high [return on investment] to merchants. We expect a strong recovery in the quarter,” he said

According to analysts tracked by Bloomberg, Alibaba has 21 “buys” and no “hold” or “sell” with a consensus target price of HK$263.39. SCMP reported that it was the first of a growing number of Chinese companies listed in the US to do a secondary listing in Hong Kong.

Tencent Holdings also got on the list of high performing companies, being the only other Chinese company to make the list of world’s top 10 performing stocks. Its capitalization stood at HK$5.38 trillion based on its latest closing price of HK$563 per share.

Saudi Aramco remains the most valuable company in the world with a market value of US$1.77 trillion. The oil giant has maintained the lead since its December 2019 Initial Public Offering (IPO), which was the biggest in history.

Other companies in the trillion value zone include Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet, following the lead of Aramco. However, the other big five, Alibaba, Facebook, Tencent, Berkshire Hathaway and Visa found themselves in the billion dollars value zone. Berkshire Hathaway has US$440 billion in capitalization while Visa has US$379 billion.

Against the backdrop, Tencent founder Pony Ma Huateng remains the richest person in China and 18th in the world, with an estimated wealth put at US$54.4 billion, ahead of Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma, who is second in china and 19th in the world, with US$2.5 billion, according to data published by Bloomberg.

The sudden rise in Alibaba’s shares is attributed to coronavirus pandemic that shifted interest to ecommerce which has defied the shutdowns to avail people the opportunity to shop online. Investors saw ecommerce industry as a place of refuge against the brute spikes of the pandemic.

But some analysts said it may not hold for long.

On the other hand, Facebook has found itself in a challenging situation that may make its rebound difficult. The social media giant seems insouciant about the decision of ad buyers to boycott the platform. CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Facebook staff that advertisers who walked away will come back even if the company does not work to address any of the concerns they raised.

Last week, Facebook lost $70 billion as a result of revenue plunge from ads and altercation in the relationship between the platform and ad buyers.

On Wednesday, campaigners and civil rights groups said their meeting with Facebook executives is a “disappointment” and that the company isn’t ready to address the platform’s ‘vitriolic hate.’

The advocacy groups said Facebook made no attempt during their meeting to address nine out of their 10 demands.

“Instead of actually responding to the demands of dozens of the platform’s largest advertisers that have joined the #StopHateForProfit ad boycott during the month of July, Facebook wants us to accept the same old rhetoric, repackaged as a fresh response,” the groups said.

Zuckerberg had said earlier that yielding to the demands of the advocacy groups may set a precedent that will hunt Facebook in the future, that it may create a situation where everyone will start making demands and expects the company to yield to them.

However, it is not clear what will happen at the end of July when the one month boycott warning expires. If the movement to boycott Facebook continues, it may put the company in a situation where other online companies will overtake it in value.