RWANDAN ELECTION COMMISSION TO VET SOCIAL MEDIA MESSAGES OF PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES

The Rwandan Election Commission has ruled that it must pre-approve all of the social media updates of Rwanda’s presidential candidates.

"We are asking (candidates) to present us their messages, their drafts to verify that they are not against the law," electoral commission head Kalisa Mbanda told AFP on Monday.

Social media messages by the presidential candidates will have to be submitted to the seven election commissioners at least 48 hours before their publication.

"If the message is not accepted it cannot be published," said Mbanda.

Perhaps spurred by reactions to Donald Trump’s unconventional use of twitter before and after the US elections, the measure will go into effect on the start of the official campaign on July 14 and concerns "messages, photographs and other campaign material" published on social networks.

Mbanda said the goal was to "prevent declarations, words, acts that can lead the population to acts of insecurity that could divide the Rwandan population."

Already political opponents, diplomats and human rights organisations have criticised this directive as a move to stifle political oppositions and censorship of freedom of expression. It is yet to be seen if Kagame will also have his social media messages vetted before publication.

Kagame has been in charge since taking power at the head of a rebel army in 1994 and has already served two seven-year terms as president.

Rivers at 50- Ten businesses maximising social media in Port-Harcourt

Rivers clocked 50 years on the 27th May 2017. In this age, social media is the new cash cow. A few businesses are cashing in and we decided to itemise ten businesses that are taking real advantage of social media platforms to create awareness of their business and increase sales.

  Dripples Cakes

 This is one brand that has been able to maximise social media to promote its business in Port-    Harcourt. It currently has about 49000 followers on Instagram and has started online cake making  classes. This is definitely one brand to watch with its engagement on social media

  Touch PH

 Touch PH is arguably one of Port-harcourt’s leading destination guides. Anyone who needs  information on where to find anything in PH s a tweet away courtesy of TouchPH and they receive  loads of tweets daily with such requests. They are also involved in promoting brands and events  online. It currently has about 65, 000 followers on twitter alone

Mudase Urban market Mudase is not your regular market. It’s located in the cosy environment of GRA PH where customers can shop fresh food items in a cosy environment. They have been able to successfully deploy twitter to promote their business, regularly showcasing meals and offers via that platform Pam Drive Positioned to be the ‘Uber’ of Port-Harcourt, Pam Drive is a taxi hailing service aiming to use the latest in technology to reduce stress and time in getting a cab within the garden city. They are massive on twitter and have been able to maximise it to their advantage Venue hero.co Africa's Venue Hero have been able to use twitter massively as one of its platforms to help individuals and corporate organisations find and book great venues for their events. It also helps event facility owners get in touch with potential clients. PH Tafia A social media promotion platform like Touch PH, PH Tafia is an online awareness creation platform. Makes major use of twitter to publish information on happenings in Nigeria and Port-Harcourt as well as promote brands and events. Palomino Body Shop Palomino Body Shop located in GRA, PH is one of Port-Harcourt’s oldest Spa and fitness center. It has decided to make use of modern technology to leverage on its place and constantly posts pictures and videos on Instagram to motivate people to fitness and also to create awareness of its retinue of fitness events and luxury spa treats and sessions Sisi Collection hair This weave and wig guru is making hair look sexy online. With continuous pictures on Instagram of its recent collections, sales and discounts, business will keep booming for this outlet

Exodus Cafe

Exodus Cafe and Lounge is one of the finest lounges and Clubs in the city. Located in GRA, this fun and relaxation spot for those with the finest of tastes is big on Instagram, constantly putting fun and cool pictures of their events

Coffee Shop PH

The Coffee Shop boasts of the Ultimate Coffee Experience in PH. The Coffee Shop offers Specialty Drinks such as Hot and Cold Coffee, Milkshakes, Smoothies, Frappacinos, and Snacks. They are making ample use of Instagram

4 NIGERIAN START-UPS SELECTED FOR 4TH CLASS OF GOOGLE LAUNCHPAD ACCELERATOR

Four Nigerian start-ups are among the many group of inspiring start-up operators from all over the world to participate in the 4th class of Launchpad Accelerator. The 4 Nigerian start-ups are Delivery Science, Gidi Mobile Limited, FlutterWave and PayStack. find more details about them here

Participants in Launchpad Accelerator receive equity-free support, credits for Google products, and continue to work closely with Google back in their home country during the 6-month program. The program includes intensive mentoring from 20+ Google teams, and expert mentors from top technology companies and VCs in Silicon Valley. 

This year, Launchpad Accelerator has also widened its curriculum to help the startups dig deeper into machine learning and AI, to help them leverage Google’s latest technologies to scale their apps.

Class 4 kicks off July 17th, 2017 at the Google Developers Launchpad Space in San Francisco and will include 2 weeks of all-expense-paid training.

This is the first time start-ups from Africa and Europe are participating in the progrma, joining start-ups from Asia and Latin-America. .

OPPORTUNITIES- FREE DIGITAL MARKETING TRAINING IN PH BY SLA IN PARTNERSHIP WITH FACEBOOK

She Leads Africa (SLA) is organising a FREE Digital Marketing Training in Port Harcourt on the 27^th, 28^th and 31^st May 2017. This training is in partnership with Facebook and supported by Biztorials.com.

The training is tagged “Boost Your Business” and it seeks to help Small and Medium Business owners understand and take advantage of Digital Marketing.

To register, follow this link https://sheleadsafrica.typeform.com/to/RHtW3. Seats are limited

SLA is a community that helps young African women achieve their professional dreams by giving them access to career and business content.

Could this be the death of Snapchat?- Instagram copies Snapchat selfie filters

Instagram Stories yesterday added a copy cat version of Snapchat’s popular reality selfie filters.  Instagram calls them face filters but they like Snapchat allow you put virtual koala ears, nerd glasses, a butterfly crown or wrinkle-smooth makeup to yourself and friends in photos or videos.

According to TechCrunch, Instagram could widen the gap by adding to its 200 million daily Stories users that already outnumber Snapchat’s 166 million total users, and further slow down Snap’s growth rate that led it to lose 25 percent of its share price value after it announced weak earnings last week.

Could this be the death of Snap Chat? Guess it works for people like me who are not on SnapChat and would rather just stick to a few multi-purpose social media platform than jumping on the next big thing. After all most of the social media apps have stories and similar features, so better to stick to what works for you. For me Insta does it.

Trending- #justiceforchisom Nigerians calls for justice for young woman who allegedly died of medical negligence in a Lagos Hospital

Family and friends of late Chisom Jane Anekwe (nee Okereke) are demanding for justice after her death at the Magodo Specialist Hospital, Lagos.  She died on April 30th, 2017, while giving birth to her third child. Her family and friends including members of the LEAP Africa alumni are alleging that she was left unattended for a long time in the midst of labour and pregnancy complications. The mother of two was laid to rest in Awka, Anambra state yesterday. 

Some medical practitioners have questioned certain aspects of the incident while others have joined in condemning her death. The Hospital is yet to share its side of the story on these allegations. Whichever way, one thing  is that Chisom's story will help to bring the thorny issue of medical negligence in Nigeria to the front burner again. There is currently an online petition being signed by concerned individuals

Here is a narration of a member of LEAP Africa alumni on the incident-

"Today we (LEAP Africa Alumni) bury one of our finest member and we can't help but to push out the story of how she died so individuals, families, and our society at large will perhaps take nothing for granted when it comes to women giving birth. Life is sacred and those who treat it with recklessness should be called to order.

So, this is Chisom Anekwe (nee Okereke), a young, vivacious, graceful, kind-hearted and intelligent woman who had devoted her life to helping indigent kids and giving their lives a meaning. She’s an alumna of LEAP Africa.

Two weeks ago, precisely April 30th 2017, Chisom died under questionable circumstances at Magodo Specialist Hospital in Lagos while trying to birth her third offspring. We believe strongly that the authorities need to ensure that lives are taken sacred in hospitals like Magodo Specialist Hospital.

Chisom was admitted in the hospital four days before she got into labour. She already had two daughters birthed in the same hospital and was there to birth her third child, a son. While at the hospital, no one attended to her when she needed help to be delivered of the long awaited baby. She was left for hours in labour. This happened until her husband created a scene, which eventually caused the doctors to go to her ward and on inspection they found out that the baby had struggled and died.

The husband at this point requested for a CS which he paid for and even signed the consent form presented by the hospital. He was then tricked out of the room to go prepare for blood transfusion and on getting back, he found out that the doctors had induced the wife and delivered the dead baby without operation not minding that the CS procedure had been paid for. This was without his consent

Call for Applications for the Health Meets Tech App Challenge

EpiAfric and Digital Health Nigeria proudly announce a call for applications for the Health Meets Tech Application Challenge, holding between June 30th and July 2nd, May 2017.

The challenge will bring existing health tech start-ups and new teams of 3–6 individuals to create, develop and pitch viable technological solutions to improve health outcomes for the average Nigerian. Solutions judged to be viable and promising will be supported with prizes and mentoring to improve clinical viability, exposure and market adoption. The Co-Creation Hub will deliver the Health Meets Tech App Challenge in Yaba, Lagos.

Who may apply?
 Interested persons may register to participate, with or without an idea, as your expertise will be used within a team to develop an application. We are looking for:

• Health care workers
• Health care users
• Software developers
• Ideators
• UI/UX designers
• Entrepreneurs
• Business people
• Start-ups
• You

Application Rules

• All participants must register in advance of the event. Registration closes 2 weeks prior to event and day-of registrations will not be allowed.
• All project teams must be comprised of 3–6 members. If team comprises of less than 3, additional members may be gotten via the event’s fb group.
• Existing teams/ businesses are allowed in this challenge. However, the work to be done during the challenge must be new in either the type of tech deployed or its application.
• No advance contact may be made with judges regarding projects, and knowledge of such communication may lead to a team’s removal from the competition.
• Solutions should be working demos and must be presented at the conclusion of the event.

How to Apply?

Please apply here.
 For more information on the challenge, please visit the website at http://www.futureofhealthconference.com/healthappchallenge/# or contact the EpiAfric team by emailing admin@epiafric.com

Note that the challenge begins on June 30th, 2017 and only applications received on or before June 15th, 2017 will be considered

 Originally published on Nigeria Health Watch

Nigeria issues guidelines on how to protect your system from global massive ransomware attack

Nigeria has issued an advisory on how to protect your computer from ransomware currently affecting over 99 countries globally. More than 45,000 attacks recorded in countries including the UK, Russia, India and China may have originated with theft of ‘cyber weapons’ from the NSA.

A ransomware cyber-attack that may have originated from the theft of “cyber weapons” from the National Security Agency (NSA) of the US government has been terrifying the globe. More than 45,000 attacks in 99 countries, including the UK, Russia, Ukraine, India, China, Italy, and Egypt were recorded. The attack has left devastating effects like crippling hospitals in England and major telecommunication companies like Telefónica in Spain.

Ransomware is a type of malware that encrypts a user’s data, then demands payment in exchange for unlocking the data. In this incident, malicious software called “WanaCrypt0r 2.0” or WannaCry, that has the ability to exploit a weakness in Windows was used. Microsoft released a software update that fixes the problem (a patch) for the flaw in March, but computers that have not installed the security update remain vulnerable.

The malware was made available online on 14 April through a dump by A group called Shadow Brokers, claimed to have stolen a cache of “cyber weapons” from the National Security Agency (NSA) last year. This year they made it available online on April 14. The NSA was initially sceptical but has been criticised of acting too slow and for stockpiling these vulnerabilities instead of giving it to persons capable of fixing them. The attack is stated by cyber security experts not to target big institutions but ‘anyone that got it’

In Nigeria, the Director General, of NITDA, Ibrahim Pantami, issued guidelines on protection of personal and workplace computers from being affected by ransomware.

“Should your system be infected by ransomware, isolate the system from your network to prevent the threat from further spreading. In addition, the following actions can be taken immediately:

• Remove the system from Network.

• Do not use flash/pen drive, external drives on the System to copy files to other systems.

• Format the System completely and get fresh OS copy installed.

As a general precautionary measure, NITDA recommended that individuals and organisations should:

• Regularly update their operating systems with the latest patches.

• Regularly update their software applications with latest patches.

• Avoid downloading and opening unsolicited files and attachments.

• Adjust security software to scan compressed or archived files.

Avoid indiscriminate use of wireless connections, such as Bluetooth or infrared ports.

If in need of emergency assistance, contact NITDA Computer Emergency Readiness and Response Team (CERRT) on: 800-9988-7766- 5544 or e-mail: support@cerrt.ng.

UBER VS. TAXIFY – Mark Essien, Hotels.ng founder, believes Nigerians prefer lower prices over quality service? Tell us what you think

Mark Essien of hotels.ng recently predicted on his twitter page ‘Taxify will crush Uber in Nigeria. Uber cares about quality, but Nigerians care about price. Taxify is barely vetting cars, Uber is strongly.’ Its quite an interesting argument to make, because  while i love a good bargain, i definitely love quality too.

The genesis of the argument is the fact that Lagosians are not pleased with Uber, complaining about the quality of Uber’s pricing and service and comparing them to other competitors like Taxify and Oga Taxi. Even though some experts do not believe that other competitors can ever win Uber in the ride-sharing war, from other examples around the globe and based on peculiar industry issues. Read here

Uber recently tried to appease its customers by reducing its fares by 40% in Lagos. Uber’s price reduction was in response to the latest price rate slash by Taxify, an Estonian international transportation network company. According to Uber in a statement, “...you can now request a high-quality ride for the same price as small chops!”

So while still hoping Uber will set up shop in PH and let us into the mouth watering bargain, let’s find out what you think-  which would you rather choose in a ride, quality or low price?

KoWorkNG to launch another co-working space at D-line, PH.

Co-working is gaining more traction in Port-Harcourt. KoWorkNG is set to launch a new hub in D-Line PH on Saturday the 13^th May, making the start-up space in PHC more interesting, as official co-working is relatively new in Port-Harcourt.

Yes, previously we had friends who ‘squatted’ other friends in their office space or people who combined to rent office space. Co-working expands on this concept by allowing people with similar values who do not necessarily know each other share a working environment but with independent activity. KoWorkNG uses this model in Port-Harcourt.

As renting an office individually can be pretty expensive, KoWorkNG  gives start-ups and others, like the self-employed and SMEs access to the right working space suitable to their needs while managing the office space and basic administrative services. Working spaces include serviced office, virtual office, board and meeting rooms. Some of these companies might not have the capital or the wherewithal to manage an office and prefer a tailored arrangement with a professional ambience that allows them focus on their business.

 KoWorkNG is not only about office spaces but also render business support services including document management, front desk services, branding and graphic design; business development management, financial advisory, and legal services through qualified partners

Asides from its newest D-Line office, it has offices at in GRA, Trans-Amadi in Port-Harcourt and Surulere in Lagos. KoWorkNG prides itself as the preferred partner for serviced offices, Co-working space and Virtual offices in PHC.

Mark Zuckerberg apologises for Whatsapp temporary shut down, to add 3,000 staff to stop suicide, murder on facebook

Facebook Founder, Mark Zuckerberg has apologized to all Whatsapp users who experienced a temporary shutdown of the services last week. WhatsApp, a popular messaging service owned by Facebook Inc, suffered a widespread global outage on Wednesday that lasted for several hours before being resolved. The apology reads: “Earlier today, WhatsApp users in all parts of the world were unable to access WhatsApp for a few hours. We have now fixed the issue and apologise for the inconvenience.” 

WhatsApp was down in parts of India, Canada, the United States and Brazil, according to Reuters. It affected people who use the service on Apple Inc’s iOS operating system, Alphabet Inc’s Android and Microsoft Corp’s Windows mobile OS. WhatsApp’s is used by more than 1.2 billion people around the world and is a key tool for communications and commerce in many countries. The service was acquired by Facebook in 2014 for $19 billion.

Zuckerberg has also beefed up the number of administrators on Facebook from 4500 to 7500. This is in order to enable adequate review of activities on the Platform especially in the light of live suicide and killings via Facebook  

Zuckerberg in a statement, said: “If we’re going to build a safe community, we need to respond quickly. We’re working to make these videos easier to report so we can take the right action sooner – whether that’s responding quickly when someone needs help or taking a post down. Over the next year, we’ll be adding 3,000 people to our community operations team around the world – on top of the 4,500 we have today – to review the millions of reports we get every week, and improve the process for doing it quickly. “These reviewers will also help us get better at removing things we don’t allow on Facebook like hate speech and child exploitation. And we’ll keep working with local community groups and law enforcement who are in the best position to help someone if they need it – either because they’re about to harm themselves, or because they’re in danger from someone else”.

According to Zuckerberg, these measures were because last week, he got a report that someone went Live on the platform to confess he was considering suicide. However, Zuckerber said he and his team immediately reached out to law enforcement, and they were able to prevent him from hurting himself. 

Port-harcourt Hubs host Facebook Head of Platform Partnerships in Middle East and Africa, Chukwuemeka Afigbo

Tech Hubs and Start-Ups in Port-Harcourt are still reeling from the recent visit of Facebook’s Head of Platform Partnerships in Middle East and Africa, Chukwuemeka Afigbo to the Garden City on the 28th of April. During the visit, he had several meet-ups with Port-Harcourt’s tech and start-up ecosystem. His purpose - To engage with start-up entrepreneurs and business owners on how Facebook can assist in developing the tech ecosystem in their communities.

He was hosted at the Skybar lounge at Genesis Galleria, GRA, where he interacted with developers, tech enthusiasts, bloggers and start-up founders. Emeka narrated his very interesting story of his sojourn into tech, first with SocketWorks and subsequently Google then Facebook. To Emeka, the biggest threat facing the tech ecosystem in Africa and the Middle East is the difficulty to scale product team as start-ups gains traction. He advised start-ups and techprenuers to be consistent in whatever they do irrespective of how small.  For startups training developers, he urged them to provide some form of incentive for the trainees like post- training hiring opportunities, similar to the Andela model.

Emeka also toured Port-Harcorut tech hubs like Ken Saro Wiwa hub, Bubbles, Olotu Square and KoWorkNg which are all hubs for start-ups and tech entrepreneurs in Port-Harcourt. His visit to Port-Harcourt was facilitated Uche Aniche of Venuehero.co / Start-Up South South and Bereni Fiberisima of Start-Up Port-Harcourt, both widely acclaimed start-up grandmasters in Port-Harcourt city.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM A4AI NIGERIAN COALITION MEETING AND INTERNET FREEDOM FORUM (IFF) 2017

It was a great experience meeting, networking and deliberating with experts in ICT and Telecommunications on issues of internet access and affordability during the April 2017 edition of the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4ai) Nigerian coalition meeting. The meeting held on the 25th April in Lagos. Key persons in the industry were in attendance such as the Minister of Communications, Barr. Adebayo Shittu and past Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Engr. Ernest Ndukwe. I was able to repeat the full potpourri of emotions during the IFF held on the 26th and 27th April Asides from the joys of gathering in a room full of ICT experts, key takeaways for me are as follows-

Nigeria ranks 3^rd in Africa in A4ai affordability index- Nigeria ranked third in A4ai’s Africa Affordability Drivers Index, out of 27 countries. A4ai’s Africa Regional Coordinator, Onica Makwakwa, made the disclosure at the unveiling of the Africa Affordability Report 2017. The report examines the policy and regulatory framework that allows some countries to make internet more affordable, accessible and universal.  Mauritius topped the table with 61.70 per cent, followed by Morocco with 57.75 per cent. Nigeria came third with 56.58 per cent.

According to the report, only five out of the 27 African countries have affordable internet– they are Mauritius, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Sudan. Affordable internet according to A4ai is one Gigabyte (1GB) of mobile pre-paid data for two per cent or less of average monthly income. In Africa however, 1GB of data costs an average citizen nearly 18 per cent of their monthly income.

African countries including Nigeria need room for improvement as we score less than five out of 10 in all policy areas

We need to be committed to more action and less talk- The honourable Minister emphasised on the need for his ministry to work with A4ai on the outcome and resolutions of the Nigerian coalition April meeting going forward. It also served as a call to action to me and other advocates for internet access and affordability to ensure that we make more concerted efforts to achieve our aims

The main barrier to access is locally relevant content and not affordability- From the Asia experience, the key challenge of ensuring internet access for all is the availability of locally relevant content and not affordability. This is a sign that we need to develop content appealing to the locals in order to encourage them to come online Access and affordability are equally important and should be advocated for simultaneously- While responding to an interesting question about whether we should push for access first before affordability, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe admitted that it was an interesting and valid proposal but that in reality for telecommunications and ICT, it may be impossible to have good access without making the internet affordable for most people. It is therefore imperative that we advocate for both to be achieved hand in hand Your voice on the internet doesn’t always lead to influence. We need to do more- We get caught up in the virtual world and discussions in online spaces about internet rights that we forget we may also need to respond offline to get make any real progress in campaigning for internet freedoms. Anriette Esterhunsen, Director of Alliance for Progressive Communications (APC) while revealing this at the IFF urged participants to be aware, Act, not get lost in the virtual world and to also use and enjoy the internet. It was also emphasised by a participant, Nnenna of Web Foundation that we need to also re-orientate people that internet freedoms is not about social media issues but includes issues of net neutrality and data protection Multi-stakeholder approach is important for effective ICT policy making – During the panel on policy and regulatory landscape at the IFF, it was concluded that we need an all inclusive multi-stakeholder approach to ICT policy making in Nigeria where relevant stakeholders are invited and consulted and issues taken to the grassroots to create awareness on how it affects them. Rather than presuming the locals are not interested and shutting them out, we should ask the locals s what kind of web they want We need sex disaggregated data to get a complete picture of ICT use- Gender disaggregated data is very important for a holistic picture of the gender divide and disparity in the use of the internet. We need to find out how internet shutdowns and monopolise in countries affect women and girls. We need to realise  Women also need to build their own army of supporters when they have issues