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82 Chibok Schoolgirls Released In Nigeria – CNN, Sahara Reporters

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Eighty-two Chibok schoolgirls have been released after successful negotiations between the terrorist group Boko Haram and the Nigerian government, according to a government official close to the negotiations.

The source, who is not authorized to speak on the record about the release, told CNN the freed girls are in military custody in Banki, a town in northeast Nigeria.
They will be transferred to the capital, Abuja, where they will have medical checks and be reunited with their families.

How It Was Done

Senior sources in Nigeria’s military have told SaharaReporters that the 82 Chibok girls released today by dreaded Islamist militant group, Boko Haram, regained their freedom after intense negotiation with a faction of the militant group.

The sources disclosed that the deal involved the Federal Government’s release of two senior Boko Haram commanders who had been in detention by the Nigerian security services. According to one of the sources, a combined team of military and Red Cross negotiators flew the two detained Islamist commanders to Banki town in Borno State where they were handed over to a team of Boko Haram representatives. The Boko Haram team had, in turn, brought the 82 Chibok girls to the outskirts of Banki where a heavy contingent of Nigerian troops took custody of them.

The sources said the negotiators included operatives from military intelligence as well as officials of the Department of State Security (DSS), Nigeria’s secret police.

Our military sources also disclosed that the Nigerian government paid Boko Haram a significant amount in foreign currencies in addition to releasing two of the insurgent group’s detainees.

SaharaReporters first broke the news of the latest release of 82 Chibok schoolgirls out of 195 of the girls who remained in captivity. Boko Haram fighters abducted more than 300 schoolgirls on April 14, 2014, but some of the girls managed to flee from their abductors. In October 2016, the Nigerian struck an agreement with Boko Haram under which 21 of the schoolgirls were released. Two others were found wandering out of the sight of their abductors last year.

The Nigerian government has not released the names of the 82 girls released today. A Nigerian government source, who asked for anonymity, disclosed that the girls would be flown first to Maiduguri before heading to Abuja tomorrow.

Kenya: Safaricom Offering $50,000 In Seed Funding

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The Safaricom Foundation Technology for Good Accelerator is a three months long incubation and seed-funding program that empowers entrepreneurs to launch globally scalable mobile tech driven startups that solve relevant local challenges.

The selection process is a unique full-day workshop and pitch presentation (after a week) where participants are trained and equipped with the most relevant lean startup tools to conduct customer discovery and validation. Teams then pitch to demonstrate customer-problem fit. The teams are also trained and equipped with the tools and skills for business modeling. They develop a business model to be tested during the incubation period.

Applications for seed funding are submitted to the investment committee for review and approval. Applicants can apply upto KES. 5,000,000 (USD 50,000) in seed funding. Your firm must be registered in Kenya.

Who Should Apply

  1. Teams of a maximum of three people by:
    • Kenyan youth (18-35 years)
    • National and community based non-governmental organisations
    • Faith based and civil society organizations
    • academic and research institutions
    • innovation hubs and the private sector
  2. Teams that have the relevant technical and business capacity required to successfully execute the the business

Themed Categories for the Program

  1. Education
  2. Health
  3. Economic empowerment
  4. Environmental conservation
  5. Water
  6. Arts
  7. Culture
  8. Disaster relief

Incubation-June-August 2017

Apply here – Deadline call for applications-2nd June 2017

Cheap Chinese goods in Africa are over

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This is global roundup, a summary of daily hot trending topics and news around the world:

  • Cheap Chinese goods in Africa are over. Years of quick profits have led to a glut of cheap products, and now malls filled with identical goods lie empty. Lily Kuo reports from Eastleigh in Nairobi, once a sleepy residential neighborhood and now one of the most globally connected trade hubs in Africa. Also from Kuo: Why the Chinese are now leaving South Africa.
  • Reasons not to fear a superhuman AI. Veteran tech writer Kevin Kelly argues in Backchannel that warnings of a robot takeover (see Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, et al.) fundamentally misconstrue what artificial intelligence is. The key is to think of intelligence not as a linear scale, but as a vast possibility space. AI won’t be superior, just very different—vastly better at some things and not at others.
  • Le hackers meddle with Macron. Just two days before France votes for a new President, the campaign of frontrunner Emmanuel Macron has been hit with a “massive and coordinated” hacking attack. The hackers reportedly duped campaign staff with phishing attempts and fake websites, and have now dumped reams of emails and accounting statements onto the Internet. Once again, it appears Russia is behind the attacks, seeking to disrupt and destabilize another democracy. (New York Times)
  • Ant Financial’s great mobile payment race – PYMNTS.com chronicles the rise of Ant Financial from a small online lender for Chinese SMBs (Alipay) to a global interoperable financial services network that is well positioned to rival the largest multinational players such as Mastercard, Visa, and Paypal. Read more
  • How banks can compete against an army of fintech startups – The Harvard Business Review explores the glacial pace at which banks have moved SME lending online and how that could leave them vulnerable. Read more
  • Medium Blue. IBM has seemingly been on the comeback trail for years. It just reported its 20th consecutive quarter of declining revenue. Now one of the company’s most ardent backers, legendary investor Warren Buffett, says he’s losing faith and has sold one-third of his stake. “I’ve revalued it somewhat downward,” Buffett tells CNBC. “IBM is a big strong company, but they’ve got big strong competitors, too.”
  • The future of TV. YouTube announced it would back 40 original series and movies over the next year, partnering with name brand stars like Ellen DeGeneres and comedian Kevin Hart. Snapchat has also been signing deals with media and news companies for short videos to run on its messaging app popular with teens

MEST Unveils Seed Funding Applications Of $50,000 – $100,000 For African Startups

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Tekedia Editors
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Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) is calling techies and entrepreneurs from Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa & Ivory Coast to join its next dynamic cohort of trainees, with the opportunity to become world-class software developers and receive funding for their tech startups by entering the fully sponsored year-long program in Accra, Ghana which begins August 2017.

Joining the program exposes the entrepreneurs to new and diverse cultures, builds them to become globally competitive, and makes them eligible to receive seed-funding of USD $50,000 – $100,000 from the Meltwater Foundation.

Recruiting from South Africa, in addition to Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and Cote D’ivoire is a deliberate move by MEST to create a pan-African network and curate a rich pool of talent and ideas. MEST aims to increase the rate of entrepreneurship adoption amongst African youth, drive more external investment to the continent, and in 2018 launch an Incubator in Johannesburg or Cape Town for MEST-graduated South African entrepreneurs to build a base and work on home soil.

The entrepreneurs-in-training (EITs) who are accepted into MEST also receive perks that allow them to focus 100% on building globally successful software companies: housing accommodation for a year in Ghana, three meals a day, and a small monthly stipend.

All interested and eligible applicants must:
– Have deep passion to build a globally successful software company
– Have several years entrepreneurial or corporate work experience
– Be able to commit spending a year in Accra, Ghana participating in the MEST training program starting August 2017

Think you’re a perfect fit for MEST or know someone who is? Start the application process HERE or contact recruitment@meltwater.org.

Application Extended beyond March 12. Apply today.

Artificial Intelligence Is The Gunpowder Of The 21st Century Business

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Internet of Things (IoT) is hot and the question is what next, after it? Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the next step after IoT. With IoT you can control and monitor machines through the Internet, but it stops there. You still need to manually look at your phone to increase your room’s temperature or open an app to turn on your smart lighting system.

With artificial intelligence, the machine itself will figure out when to turn on or modulate devices around you based on your previous interactions with them.

This other side of this is that security and its issues will transform drastically. Today, humans are responsible for most hacks across the planet. However, the day we see artificial intelligence grow past the tipping point, will be they day you see hacks and cyberattacks happening 24 hours a day simultaneously from billions of connected devices.

In the next industrial revolution, the commodity is going to be AI. Any IoT enabled factory or industry can be quickly connected to an AI, which can then go through years of historic data to figure out trends that can drastically improve the efficiency and effectiveness of that production facility. The level of productivity increases or energy efficiency that can be brought in is unimaginable.

Algorithms are domain specific — there is no single set of algorithms for all AI problems. If you take human intelligence, it is not single dimensional. Computers have an arithmetic type of thinking, with pattern recognition and so on, whereas machines have just a single dimension and does not get distracted like humans. With numerous wireless options available today, the amount of raw data coming into an AI can be incredibly high. That will help to improve it capability.

AI will be the gunpowder of the 21st century and will be catalytic in driving industrial production. Now is the time to find how AI can improve your business because it will change everything.

 

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