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Africa Fintech Foundry Unveils ‘The Big Tech Show’
Africa Fintech Foundry (AFF), an initiative that aims to nurture, fund, and accelerate the growth of Tech startups in Africa has launch a television show, ‘The Big Tech Show’.
The television documentary show launched in collaboration with Accelerate TV is aimed at exposing innovators and creating awareness on how African start-ups are using technology to solve problems.
Africa Fintech Foundry (AFF) is a pan-African initiative focused on creating new opportunities in Africa by providing a platform designed to inspire and challenge African innovators and entrepreneurs.
Speaking at the launch of the show in Lagos, Ade Bajomo, executive director of technology and operations, Access Bank, said that The Big Tech Show is basically to showcase the best that Africa have got. “We are building an ecosystem and that ecosystem is at the infancy stage as such we have to expose it.
“Show how innovators are throwing up the innovations, show how they are solving the problems. Now nerds rule the world because they are solving difficult problems. This is part of celebrating Africa and this programme goes around to Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria,” he said.
According to him, “the role of AFF is basically to stay out there and look at the entire ecosystem across Nigeria and Africa as a whole and look for innovators across all fields and see how we can partner to develop solutions that can solve real deep problems.
“It can be for financial services, Agrictech, Insurtech or in solving social responsibility issue. It is about bringing that collaboration, that is why AFF is set up to find those Innovators, starts up, creative people fuse their ideas together and bring it back into the ecosystem.
“There are two things that changed the narrative in Nigeria, first one is Nollywood without support from anywhere became third in the world. The second is Afrobeat and the third one is developing and that is what we are doing here.
“The role of AFF is also to build that ecosystem, articulate all the issues in the ecosystem make them accessible, get more people to join the ecosystem and promote the ecosystem to fully develop so that Africa becomes the hub of digital innovation and for us to be solving our own problems in the fourth, fifth and six industrial revolution across the world”.
Uzoma Dozie, chief executive officer, Sparkle, described The Big Tech Show initiative as a very noble initiative. “What AFF is trying to do is to expo and create awareness of how many countries across Africa are trying to leverage on technology to make life better for their own people.
“Secondly, we need African organisations doing expose’ of what Africans are doing, you can’t expect Americans or Europeans to be doing it, let us take control of the narratives. That is exactly what The Big Tech Show is doing here. I think it is wonderful,” he stated.
On Impact of Fintech in Africa, Dozie said that Africa has not started in exploring Fintech. “They will always say that the biggest example of Fintech impact is in Nairobi with M-pesa. Where they used mobile money to effect change on how people transfer and changed their life.
“In Nigeria, we have seen that as well, but we haven’t talked about it enough. We need to do much more, Nigeria is a much bigger country with over 200 million people though with infrastructure challenges. We have education, health and Agriculture. These are areas where technology can play a role.
“From financial perspective Nigeria has done very well in FinTech, we have better mobile financial Apps than you can find in Europe but we need to use it to impact more life to go down on the pyramid. We are doing well, we have great creativity and entrepreneurship, we just need more collaboration between the private sector, regulators and legislatures for us to now build these skills. We need a common denominator. Right now, we are all working in silos.
“This kind of Big Tech Show would create that awareness among people in different stakeholder’s group. When you see what other countries are doing you ask yourself how come we are not doing this in Nigeria but we are actually investing in technology but how come it is not reaching the man on the street. What do we need to do? That might force us to come together to collaborate and find solution.
Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, cofounder, general partner – Future Africa, said that a lot of younger entrepreneurs need an encouragement and mentorship. “This show is going to help to inspire them so that they can see how people who did it before did it perhaps they will have an opportunity to follow in their steps.
“It is interesting that the bankers have decided to tell the stories of these entrepreneurs through collaboration between AFF and Accelerate TV,” he noted.
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has strongly denied allegations of lack of integrity and transparency directed at its chairman, Ola Olukoyede, by columnist Steve Osuji.
In a statement issued by Dele Oyewale, spokesperson, EFCC. the commission described the claims as “worrisome and unjustifiable,” particularly criticizing the personal attacks on Olukoyede.
“More worrisome was his attack on Olukoyede for no justifiable reason. Allegations of lack of transparency, accountability and integrity deficit are wild and clearly off the mark,” Oyewale said.
He questioned the basis for the allegations and defended Olukoyede’s leadership since taking office.
“The question is: in what way has Olukoyede fallen short? Is it by insisting that the right things should always be done? By moving the nation’s anti-graft war forward radically and unprecedentedly?
“By bringing forth a preventive framework to tackle corruption and reaping bountiful gains for the nation?
“By recovering the globally-acclaimed 753 duplexes and other apartments, which are proceeds of fraudulent dealings for the nation?
“By launching the EFCC into a global map of accomplished anti-graft agencies? By handling 50,000 case files in one year?
“By embarking on a courageous internal cleansing system and other progressive initiatives to deepen and strengthen the anti-corruption fight?
“It is cowardly and uncharitable for any columnist to hide under vague and opaque cover to splash mud on Ola Olukoyede, arguably one of the finest breed of anti-graft czars around the world.”
Olukoyede, through the statement, reaffirmed that the EFCC has consistently submitted its annual reports to the National Assembly as required by law.
“Equally preposterous are claims of re-looting of assets by officers of the Commission. For the purpose of clarification, the Commission does not recover monetary assets into its covers and the non-monetary assets that are recovered are disposed of following clear pronouncements by court and proceeds paid into the Confiscated and Forfeited Properties Account account in the Central Bank in line with provisions of the Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Act, 2022.
“The EFCC does not operate in secrecy. All its operations are regularly communicated to the public, including public auction of assets. To deliberately cast the Commission in the mould of fraudulent engagements or criminality is not only mischievous but also untenable,” the statement concluded.
IHS Nigeria and its implementing partner, the United Nations Child Education Fund (UNICEF) has expressed satisfaction that the Oxygen Plant recently donated to Rivers State is helping to bridge the health Gap in the state and its environs.
This observation was made recently when officials from IHS Nigeria and UNICEF, carried out a project inspection visit to the plant located at the General Hospital in Eleme, Rivers State.
During the handing over of the oxygen plant to the Rivers State Government in 2024, the facility was reported to have a production capacity of 123 oxygen cylinders and 720,000 litres of oxygen every 24 hours.
The plant was built under a Public-Private Partnership involving UNICEF, the Canadian Government, IHS Nigeria, in partnership with the Rivers State Ministry of Health through the State Hospital Management Board.
Speaking during the visit to the facility yesterday, the Director of Sustainability at IHS Nigeria, Titilope Oguntuga, noted that the oxygen plant has saved lives and is helping to bridge health gaps in the eight other states where similar plants are located.
She further explained that the visit reflects the organisation’s commitment “not only to create opportunities for impact but to also continue supporting the healthcare industry by carrying out such interventions that directly impact individuals and saves lives. This plant is one of the nine oxygen plants we have built across the federation,” she said.
“We are particularly excited that it is helping to bridge health gaps—not just in Rivers State and its environs, but in all the states where the plants are currently located.”
Oguntuga informed that in terms of sustainability “we focus our intervention sustainability on four pillars; ethics and governance, education and economic growth, environment and climate change and finally, people and communities”.
She added that “the visit to the Rivers State oxygen plant is to have an assessment of how well the plant is functioning, the impact it is currently making and to generally understand how the operation is going”.
On his part, Chief of UNICEF Field Office, Port Harcourt, Dr Anslem Audu, stated that the plant has been very functional and useful to the people of Rivers State. According to him, “During the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of patients needed oxygen and oxygen was not available. So many children will come down with pneumonia and it will become an emergency, they will need oxygen, but oxygen is not available in the hospital. But with this plant now available no child will die because of lack of oxygen in the hospital. The era of lack of oxygen is no longer there.
Audu added that “You can practically visit any of the hospitals in Port Harcourt and find out that they have oxygen and the product is from this plant all thanks to IHS Nigeria, the Canadian Government and UNICEF”.
The UNICEF field officer, who confirmed that the plant is functioning optimally, said it is producing enough oxygen for the state’s needs.
In his words, “The partnership between these three organizations and the Ministry of Health in Rivers State has really worked, and we are reaping the benefits of the partnership.
He urged the implementing partners, especially the government, to also invest in the sustainability of the facility by providing a source of electricity for the plant to be more functional.
Earlier, the Medical Director Eleme General Hospital, Dr Leechi-Okere Clarabelle, noted that since the day of the unveiling, the plant has been functioning very well. Commenting on impact he noted that “We’ve had success stories whereby oxygen is distributed to public hospitals in the state, including the two teaching hospitals in the state and then we have also extended distribution to some private hospitals within the state.
“We have two hubs that serve as storage and distribution points because of the location of the plant. We produce here and store somewhere in Port Harcourt so that people who come from a far distance can get oxygen from these hubs.
Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has accused a 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) candidate of manipulating his identity and engaging in online blackmail.
Fabian Benjamin, head of public affairs, JAMB, issued a statement on the matter on Thursday.
He said one Chinedu Okeke, currently a 400-level Medicine and Surgery student at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), gained admission in 2021 while claiming to be from Amuwo-Odofin, Lagos state.
JAMB said Okeke’s national identification number (NIN) records from 2021 confirm his Lagos origin.
The board stated it does not alter candidate information provided through NIN.
The board, however, said the 400-level student, who is facing potential challenges for incorrect credentials, is now claiming that it retrieved the wrong details for him from the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) in 2021.
“[This] is unequivocally false, aimed at fabricating a defence for his case,” Benjamin said.
“The evidence suggests that Chinedu altered his records as filled in 2021 before registering for the 2025 UTME, a fact confirmed by even his advocates.”
The board questioned why a 400-level medical student would seek to study mechanical engineering in 2025, especially with “inconsistencies in his claims.”
JAMB alleged that Okeke “took advantage” of Lagos state’s quota in 2021, thereby obstructing the admission opportunities for other deserving candidates from the state.
It added that he then “attempted to manipulate his details with the NIMC” to unjustly claim representation from Anambra state in 2025.
The board criticised “online advocates” for “actively reaching out to Chinedu’s parents to extract emotional narratives rather than factual clarifications, neglecting to seek information directly from the university.”
JAMB affirmed its commitment to maintaining accurate records and preventing candidates from exploiting loopholes.
It warned that if UNN confirms any inconsistencies, it would notify the Medical and Dental Council to consider delisting Okeke.
“When a nation trivialises illegalities, it breeds a future fraught with potential criminality,” Benjamin’s statement concluded.
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