eco. Business Fund And Fidelity Bank Form New Partnership To Expand Access To Finance For Agribusinesses In Ghana

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eco. Business Fund And Fidelity Bank Form New Partnership To Expand Access To Finance For Agribusinesses In Ghana

The eco.business Fund , an impact investment fund advised by Finance in Motion, has made its first investment in Ghana, extending USD 15 million to Fidelity Bank.

The senior loan will be on-lent to a wide range of agribusinesses that cover the entire value chain – from food production to logistics and supply chains across domestic staples and export crops – while promoting production and consumption practices that contribute to the sustainable use of natural resources and biodiversity conservation.

The partnership will enable both parties to work together to build the capacity of agribusinesses directly in key value chains. The partners will strive to promote market linkages, climate-resilient and sustainable agricultural practices, as well as provide technical support and training to agribusinesses and bank staff.

As a major player in the banking and finance space in Ghana, Fidelity Bank demonstrates its leadership by supporting the growth of the agricultural sector, not just because of the business and commercial opportunities it presents, but most importantly the direct impact it has on job creation, food security, improved livelihood, and gender inclusion. The bank provides tailor-made solutions to agribusinesses across most value chains with a focus on tree crops, nuts, cereals, livestock production, roots and tubers as well as across agrochemical and input supplies. The bank’s strong commitment to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), financial inclusion, and sustainability makes it an ideal partner for the fund.

A country with rich biodiversity and a large share of agriculture in its GDP and employment, Ghana is striving to be food self-sufficient in the coming years. The country has taken active steps towards sustainability and food security through the adoption of sustainability standards within the agribusiness sector, a focus on domestic production, and key export commodities. The partnership between Fidelity Bank and the eco.business Fund ascertains the mutual commitment of both parties in delivering on this agenda.

Dr. Jens Mackensen, Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the eco.business Fund, said: “We are proud to join forces with Fidelity Bank to support the entire agrifood value chain in export and domestic crops. The fund’s investment not only provides much needed patient capital to agribusinesses but will also have a positive impact on sustaining employment, improving sustainable agriculture practices and domestic food security.”

Commenting on the partnership, the Managing Director of Fidelity Bank Ghana, Mr. Julian Opuni noted “We are happy to be forging this strong partnership with the eco.business Fund which will boost the growth of the agricultural sector. This reinforces Fidelity Bank’s continuous support to the growth of agribusinesses in the country. In addition to the funding, we will also provide capacity building to customers in the agribusiness value chain. As an indigenous bank that embodies Ghanaian excellence, we see this partnership as catalyst for growing the SME sector as it will boost our capacity to support more SMEs in the agribusiness space”.

Channel To Success: How Partners Drive Digital Transformation

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Channel To Success: How Partners Drive Digital Transformation

 It’s true that the only constant is change. And in our modern post-pandemic economy, the rate of change has accelerated and is showing no signs of slowing down.

 

Today, companies are beset with a multitude of challenges and changes in their operating environment. From dealing with supply chain disruptions to adapting to new ways of work, companies have their hands full.

 

The question is no longer if companies should digitally transform; it’s a matter of how quickly and in which areas that digital transformation would deliver the greatest value.

 

Partner ecosystem never more important

In this environment, the role of technology partners has never been more important. Companies and leaders need to be able to tap into a rich technology partner ecosystem to drive their digital transformation and ensure their business is geared for the challenges of a changing modern economy.

 

A strong partner ecosystem supports digital transformation, as each partner may have specialised services or knowledge that focus on specific industries, markets or competencies.

 

As a partner builds experience and proficiency in an industry, that knowledge becomes embedded in their solutions and services, and can significantly reduce risk and drive successful outcomes across a broad range of digital transformation priorities. That adds value to their offering and allows them to create revenue streams beyond the core technology.

 

For example, a tech partner specialising in the retail sector would have products, services and insights that can help retailers more quickly adopt new capabilities and avoid costly mistakes in their own digital transformation efforts.

 

Customers ultimately need to see their technology partners as collaborators in driving the lifetime value of technology investments to achieve greater business outcomes.

 

However, the partner ecosystem is in a state of change due to the changing way organisations buy, consume and utilise technology.

 

Shifting financial model of digital transformation

One of the biggest changes in the way companies adopt technology and drive digital transformation is the switch from physical – or hardware – deployments to a cloud or as-a-service model.

 

Today, companies want the flexibility to subscribe to and pay only for the technology components that they actually use. In response, tech companies have transformed their revenue models to a pay-as-you-use model.

 

This holds multiple benefits. Firstly, it opens up greater choice to companies wishing to adopt the best solutions for every business function without having to also purchase functionality or products that they don’t want or will never use.

 

Secondly, a consumption-based model is more easily scalable, as the hardware that enables a rapid scaling – for example when a company enters a new market or territory – sits on the tech provider’s side. If the company then decides to exit the market or scale down operations, they can simply scale down their consumption and associated costs.

 

Tech companies and their partners have also over the years invested in the development of technology templates for specific functions or industries. These templates are often developed with the knowledge of what worked and what didn’t work in other similar tech deployments, allowing other companies to avoid mistakes or lengthy customisation processes, which can inflate the overall costs of the project.

 

This can speed up the time-to-value for new digital transformation initiatives and help build a process of continuous innovation and improvement that drives the business’ success.

 

Challenges remain

The partner ecosystem is not without its challenges, however. In some cases, partners are still focused on selling large deployments that carry huge costs to the company. While such projects can undoubtedly deliver transformative business value to the company, it’s not entirely in step with the way modern businesses want to consume tech.

 

Instead, the focus should be on a form of value engineering where partners join forces with their customers for the long haul and consistently innovate and transform business processes to drive value.

 

Partner organisations need to evolve their business models around developing apps and IP that can be reused in similar industries and use cases, which can drive profitability for partners and cost benefits for customers. Traditional financial models also need to evolve: in a cloud-first world, there’s no need for lengthy advisory and implementation projects. The focus is squarely on quick turnaround and rapid time-to-value that drive business outcomes in priority areas.

 

It’s less a matter of finding the correct technology mix and conducting a once-off large-scale deployment, and more a case of continuous innovation and improvement across a broad spectrum of business cases to steadily enhance the organisation’s capabilities.

 

This can unlock untold benefits and establish a culture of co-innovation that enhances the organisation’s innovation capabilities while continuously delivering business value.

 

Skill sets also need to evolve and shift away from infrastructure to advisory and business value generation, in addition to expert knowledge and capabilities in deploying cloud solutions.

 

Technology partners play an essential role in companies’ ability to scale quickly, develop new competencies and unlock new market opportunities. As the modern business environment continues to change at an increasingly rapid pace, companies need the support and insight of trusted partners more than ever.

Embracing green and smart transformation whole-heartedly for Zhongnan Construction

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HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 2 September 2022 – The first Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) report of Zhongnan Construction (“The Company”, SZSE:000961), a leading Chinese enterprise principally engaged in real estate development and construction, was recently published, showing how The Company is accelerating efforts to promote a more green and smart business and build a better living space for communities during the year of 2021.

The 2021 ESG Report released by The Company is the latest reply to various stakeholders including suppliers, employees and other partners. Meanwhile, it is a response to the country’s “dual carbon strategy” and “rural revitalization”.

“In the year 2021, we are more aware of the importance of upgrading the corporate sustainability system to advance with the times. We believe we can rely on our prudent operation to tide over all the uncertainties brought by the COVID-19 pandemic and the turbulent changes in the real estate and construction industry,” said Chen Jinshi, founder and chairman of the Board of Directors of The Company.

Integrating ESG strategy with business

The Company was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange since 2009. It mainly focuses on two areas: real estate development, and construction business.

The total asset of The company reached 367.98 billion yuan (US$ 54.71) at the end of 2021 and the income stood at 79.21 billion yuan in the year 2021.

Based on the expertise and years of practice in the construction field, The Company has its own understanding of ESG. The letter E means harmonious environmental development, the letter S stands for healthy interaction with all kinds of stakeholders, and the letter G means robust internal governance.

The Company does not just take ESG strategy as a theory but tries to make it really work.

The Company identifies a concrete path to integrate sustainability and environmental, social and governance strategies across its daily operations, determining top five ESG priorities, including reducing carbon emissions, building healthy living space, employee improvement, better community and operation with integrity.

To realize these priorities, The Company has set its focus area on construction field where it believes its expertise can make the biggest difference and drive industry-wide change.

The Company is collaborating with partners on the industry chain to advance green transformation of the construction industry and the real estate industry, responding to the environmental goal.

In 2021, The Company integrated the existing environmental protection facilities, strengthening the penetration of green concepts across the entire industrial chain, covering development, design, construction and operation, and expanding business to urban renewal and ecological river management.

Reducing carbon emissions & Green buildings

The Company believes that for construction enterprises the best way to reduce carbon emissions and become more sustainable is to advance green transformation. And it has been committed to promoting green transformation in multiple ways from development to planning, design, construction, operation and renovation.

As at the end of 2021, The Company has completed 54.1 million square meters of projects which meet the one-star standard for green building, 19.47 million square meters of projects which meet two-star standard, and 540,000 square meters of projects which meet three-star standard. The total area of projects that meet the green building standards is 74.11 million square meters.

In 2021 The Company tapped into the ecological river management and urban renewal. It participated in the Jian River Restoration Project, a sub-project of Luoyang City’s “Joint Restoration of the Four Rivers” project, contributing to the restoration of Jian River. This project is The Company’s first large-scale municipal water conservancy Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project in Luoyang, and it is a key livelihood project in Luoyang.

Also in the year 2021, The Company obtained commercial center renewal projects in Xin’an, Shenzhen, and expects to invest over 4 billion yuan in these projects, including building an urban complex, which is covering high-end office, commercial, residential and other business, and creating a new urban landmark in high-end position in Qianhai.

Besides, The Company has been committed to promote the industrialization and technological upgrading of the construction industry, which can greatly improve productivity and cut off carbon emission at the same time.

Since 2007, the company established the NPC (New Prefabricated Concrete) Division focusing on the modernization, transformation and upgrading of construction industry and development of NPC technology.

So far, The Company has developed six generations of NPC technology system with the overall prefab rate at more than 90 percent, in the leading position in the entire industrial chain of domestic precast concrete structure covering in-depth design, processing, transportation, and hoisting construction, which is recognized by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.

Creating better communities

The Company always believes that a good community should have quality buildings, convenient facilities and friendly atmosphere, which enables people to strive for a better life. Thus, it proposed an idea of Healthy TED (Technology, Enjoyment and Daring) community, helping shape the communities where we live and work.

A Healthy TED community focuses in the following areas: Healthy living environment, to improve the comfort of living from the aspects of facilities, environment, etc. with more technological applications; Hearty community atmosphere, to provide a variety of functional support and service platforms, allowing customers to enjoy the company of love of family and a harmonious neighborhood atmosphere. Up to now, The Company has established 343 Healthy TED communities.

Since 2021, the company is actively embracing digital technologies to make community buildings more customized, just like the manufacturing of automobiles.

The company has been engaged in promoting the smart manufacturing of buildings. It decomposes a building into thousands of modules or components and then assembles them according to the demand of different customers. It specially established a building components R&D and design base to accelerate its dream-manufacturing houses like automobiles.

At the end of 2021, a laboratory named the Zhongnan Intelligent Construction Workshop (Z-lab) was established in Haimen District, Nantong City.

At the Z-lab, The Company consistently disassembles the building blocks into “components”, forming a set of “production lines” that are finely divided, accurately classified and clear at a glance.

In the future, these components can be assembled online through the intelligent platform, reducing the uncertainty caused by the processing of components at the construction site. This can effectively improve quality and efficiency, and reduce construction costs.

Also in the year 2021, The Company launched a project called “Zhongnan Better Life Cube”, which enables customers to see the construction process of the new building, experience the future service and the community life in advance.

Operating with Integrity and Accountability

The Company always adheres to the philosophy of operation with integrity and accountability.

The Company continuously strengthen the internal control management of overall business, effectively control the business risks of the enterprise, and promote all-round compliant production and operation of the entire industry chain.

The Company has built a risk management system with reference to the COSO risk management and internal control framework to define the relevant responsibilities of the board of directors and management at all levels, thereby ensuring the effective operation of the system.

In 2021, in order to further consolidate the achievement of enterprise risk management, The Company successively conducted a series updates of internal control systems.

The Company actively improves the internal audit information system by refining the online tracking and closed-loop mechanism for audit issues to raise audit efficiency.

The Company also casts great importance to the anti-corruption work. With reference to the ISO 37001 anti-bribery management system and the internal management system of benchmarking enterprises, The Company has formulated a series of anti-corruption systems, including Integrity and Self-discipline Clauses, Employee Code of Conduct, Audit Management System, Red Line Management System, Management Regulations and Declaration Guidelines for Potential Conflicts of Interest of Employees, Audit and Anti-Corruption Management System, etc.

The above-mentioned systems were implemented in all aspects of business and among all employees. For The Company, achieving green and smart transformation in collaboration with all kinds of partners is its purpose and also responsibility to deliver a sustainable future. We take this responsibility seriously.

Zhongnan Construction’s 2021 ESG Report is now available for download at the links below:
http://www.zoina.cn/wp-content/themes/images/esgEN.pdf

Hashtag: #ZhongnanConstruction

About Zhongnan Construction Group

Zhongnan Construction（SZSE:000961）rooted in the building construction industry with more than 30 years’ experience, we are the sole private construction company in China that holds both the Premium-class Housing Construction EPC Qualification and the Grade-A Construction Engineering Design Qualification. These top class construction qualifications have been granted to only four construction companies in China by the MOHURD.

Truecaller Launches Vastly Improved iOS App

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Truecaller Launches Vastly Improved iOS App

“Truecaller on iOS has always been a challenge because of the specific platform restrictions and differences from Android, ” said Alan Mamedi, Co-founder and CEO of Truecaller. “Over the years, we’ve been working hard to bring powerful features like Call Alerts, a dedicated widget and search extension to iOS but the live caller ID always eluded us – till now!

 

 

We’ve been working closely with Apple and we realised the only way to solve this problem for our iOS users was to throw out all the old code and completely rewrite the app. A lot of iOS users have been waiting for this update for a long time and I’m excited to finally be able to say that we have built the best performing spam/scam blocking for iOS. ”

 

 

Highlights of the new iOS app:

 

  • 10x better Caller ID, 10x better protection against spam and scam  Smoother and faster onboarding for new users
  • Enhanced detail view when you search for numbers
  • New Premium purchase flow with easier feature comparisons
  • Redesigned search extension (from Phone > Recents > Share Contact)

 

Updates coming soon:

 

  • More precise SMS filtering that works completely offline (If enabled, Truecaller can also auto-categorize all finance SMS, promotions, online orders and travel updates)
  • Automatic blocking of top spammers
  • Detailed statistics on spam marked numbers
  • See and view comments on spam marked numbers for additional context  Redesigned widget for even faster number search

dorra Slimming Wins Women’s Weekly Spa Awards 2022 in Singapore

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dorra’s award-winning fat-burning and body-shaping technologies have helped women in Singapore lose weight in their tummy, hips and thighs since 2011.

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 2 September 2022 – dorra’s slimming treatments for women continue to garner awards for their effective reduction of stubborn fat located around the tummy, hips and thighs. dorra’s Intense Fat Burning Slimming Treatment was recently featured as the Best Body-Shaping Massage (Tummy) in the Women’s Weekly’s Spa Awards 2022. The slimming centre also made it onto the list of Trusted Brands in Singapore for the year 2022, signalling dorra’s commitment to building its reputation by developing consumer trust.

https://dorraslim.com.sg/our-specialisation/

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EC Holdings Launches Global Investment Migration Services

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Hon. Philippe A. May is appointed CEO to spearhead operations

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 2 September 2022 – Global investment migration firm, EC Holdings, commences operations with the launch of its Singapore Headquarters and the appointment of the Hon. Philippe A. May as Chief Executive Officer. Recognising the value of acquiring alternative residence and citizenship-by-investment (CBI) migration in the 21st century, the highly experienced leadership team offer advice and expertise, enabling greater flexibility, security and access to the world’s major economies.

https://ec-holdings.com/
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    • ETHW DAO, an Extraordinary DAO Organization, is going to start its IEO Event

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    GEORGE TOWN, CAYMAN ISLANDS – Media OutReach – 2 September 2022 – Recently, ETHW DAO, the Extraordinary DAO Organization Relying on Coin-up, announces its first round of IEO from 2pm, September 1 to 2pm September 10 (GMT+8), Users can participate in by logging into Coin-up. Aiming to provide scalable technical, financial and community support for the continuation of ETHPOW to continue the POW consensus mechanism. $ETHDA will serve as an incentive token to form an economic closed loop in the internal and external ecology of ETH.

    After a whole year of in-depth exploration, ETHW DAO launches a revolutionary alternative of metaverse by innovatively combining 2 emerging technologies, Metaverse and Dao, empowered by Web3 construction, where rights for the people, by the people.

    Based on the principle of democratic autonomy, ETHW DAO has set up a unique reputation token mechanism, which is a set of contribution criteria based on which reputation metrics are created. Community members can earn their Reputation Tokens (NFTs) by crowd funding, voting, providing research reports, and completing tasks. Members can exercise corresponding rights that match their reputation metrics. This means that personal contributions should be the true measure of the governing rights for the community.

    ETHW DAO community members are divided into 3 segments. The first segment is called Original DAO, in which members are granted a certain amount of private placement at the beginning of the project. The members of Original DAO are to become the highest level of decision-making. The second segment is made up by ETHW DAO Token holding member, which is the segment that can make initial proposals for the organic ecology to be built in the future. And the third segment is constitute of sub-DAO members, which links to global resources.

    Under the governance principles based on Reputation Tokens, ETHW DAO creates a Community Token Mechanism based on ERC20 protocol to create a complete economic model, called Community Tokens, $ETHDA, which have been issued in the amount of 200,000,000.

    Of $ETHDA, 9% of the tokens are given to start-up contributors for outstanding community projects and 11% of the tokens are given to ETHW DAO Labs for outstanding community members. This aims to motivate all community residents to proactively contribute to its building. 45% of $ETHDA is used for circulation within the internal ecosystem; 15% of $ETHDA is used for sales; 15% is used for liquidity; and the remaining 5% is used for private placement.

    Based on this economic model, ETHW DAO has established an NFT mechanism to facilitate the circulation of $ETHDA, where each community builder will be distributed an NFT in the future. These NFTs can be traded in NFT marketplace once all 10,000 NFTs are activated. Long-term NFT holders will receive NFT as interest on their earnings.

    ETHW DAO prospects to be the organization that helps people in the real world connect to the metaverse and unleash the creativity of the metaverse by developing quantum computing tools, integrating virtual land and NFT, and creating a hyper ledger. In the world built by ETHW DAO, rights of the people, for the people, and members of ETHW DAO community in the metaverse will be empowered by the democratic self-governing philosophy of DAO.

    Hashtag: #ETHWDAO

    New Global Women’s Networking Platform Lifting Communities Across Africa Launches Women In Tech Community

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    New Global Women’s Networking Platform Lifting Communities Across Africa Launches Women In Tech Community

    Built with safe protocols and features to counter cyber bullying; Set to redefine digital networking as we know it and drive intra Africa trade; Women influencers and communities globally are setting up for “early adopters” advantage; Available on web portal, android app and IOS apps for women worldwide.

    TWAA – a mentorship and digital community based social media company arising from Africa – launches a “Women in Tech” community on its platform in a bid to connect women led communities with technology. TWAA seeks to create impact in the world of networking, with a focus on tools for community mobilization, content sharing and networking targeting the female economy.

    Founded by African media and tech entrepreneur Irene Kiwia, and incubated and invested by leading Pan African venture studio Adanian Labs, TWAA is a platform where women across the world can build groups and manage their communities in a safe space. The platform incorporates multi tools for content creation and sharing; collaboration and co-creation, group management; a marketplace for products and services; group and one-on-one mentorship and much more.

    “TWAA is built to give women a relevant platform that addresses critical issues in digital networking including data privacy, a by design shield from cyber bullying, inclusivity, accessibility and an overly simplified personal portal that allows women to build and manage their communities more efficiently and effectively – with mentorship being a key component. TWAA is built by women for women, factoring in varied nuances that are specific to what women find as relevant to how they use and interact with technology,” said Irene Kiwia, TWAA founder.

    TWAA has been in beta (https://bit.ly/3Rs5jXf) mode since October 2020 on its web portal, and the android app version went live in May 2021 with the IOS app launching today.

    Currently TWAA has over 25,000 members from over 35 countries. It is open to “early adopters” who can benefit from building a solid wave of connections and becoming the platform’s initial set of influencers as the member base grows.

    “What’s fascinating about TWAA is the fact that it is built to promote inclusivity with women in mind, giving users an exciting user-friendly experience with features that streamline engagement like never before. For the first time ever I feel like I have a platform that ticks the key things that I needed the most in my personal development journey. It’s absolutely empowering!” said Linda Caroline, a TWAA member and Project Manager at Bureau Veritas.

    ‘I have been managing multiple women communities in various platforms and it’s always been overwhelming to deliver value because everything is super scattered with a user journey that is tiring to both me as a community manager and my network members. TWAA gives me a one stop platform to onboard my groups and interact with each group seamlessly, because the group management tools factor in everything I need to grow and bring value to my group… from members management, a content portal, a marketplace, a video conferencing tool, to networking tools, and all of this within one click.” Said Jane Thomas, a women empowerment champion in South Africa.

    Even though The TWAA platform is still relatively new, the social media world has shown how quickly networking platforms can grow. We have seen newly launched social apps going viral and becoming global sensations virtually overnight, grossing billion dollars in a short time span.

    “Our mission at TWAA is to give women digital tools that will help them create massive value for themselves and their communities. We built a platform with women in mind considering issues around safety and cyberbullying, where by design the platform counters that. We also understand how important communities are for women and we have ensured that we give them a platform that will enable them to build and manage communities in a manner that drives value. We are launching a Women in Tech community on TWAA to bring key technology stakeholders along with women in technology to bridge accessibility in terms of capacity, knowledge, information, tools and resources. We foresee a community where women who are looking to join the tech space in Africa are interacting, learning and exchanging value and collaborating”.

    Here’s what you should know about TWAA, the women’s platform that may soon have the female world and female led communities globally interconnected and creating exponential value.

    On the TWAA platform, members can create groups and invite their communities to join and participate in mentorship, knowledge sharing, video chats, conversations and other forms of collaboration. Members can see other members, their profiles and connect with each other. Members can also set up groups with the person who creates the group taking over the admin rights to set up group protocols.

    Members can also display their products and services on Store – the in-platform marketplace, set up their speaker’s bio on the speakers’ portal and display books in the book store to ensure that they can be accessed across the world.

    Members can also interact with the built-in content sharing features including article write-ups, short posts, video posting, photo sharing and podcasts. The content is well segmented to allow members to access video, audio, written and all other content on dedicated portals, with the timeline giving the platform an edge on feature options.

    Signing up to TWAA is easy. You can access the platform via wwww.twaa.io or download the app on android play store or IOS app store and set up your profile. The biggest appeal for the platform is that it feels like all of one’s favorite platforms and digital tools are fused into one fabulous portal, allowing for seamless interaction at one place.

    TWAA members can sign up as individuals or as an organization – with a different dashboard experience for each. Several organizations are signing on to the platform including Bureau Veritas, a global leading standardization company who were among the first organizations to use the platform to run an internal capacity building program for the women within their organization.

    TWAA is also running a campaign to get influencers, content creators, women’s groups, women’s associations and corporates across the world to join the platform and use it as a tool to build a valuable proposition in empowering women across different sectors.

    The platform can be used as a forum for a range of topics across various sectors and discourse. Be it fashion, beauty, science and technology, innovation, entrepreneurship or any other type of activism, TWAA provides the relevant tools to connect, mobilize, engage and influence.

    Given the current tech landscape, it is exciting to see an African innovation that is scaling globally, and the future looks promising for TWAA as it grows both in its member base and profile, disrupting the way women connect and interact with social platforms.

    Vera Songwe Steps Down As Economic Commission For Africa (ECA) Executive Secretary

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    Vera Songwe Steps Down As Economic Commission For Africa (ECA) Executive Secretary

     United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Vera Songwe, has stepped down, effective 1 September 2022, after five years of dedicated service to ECA and its Member States.

    Announcing her decision to step down during a town hall meeting on 22 August, Ms. Songwe thanked ECA staff for their team spirit and support during her tenure.

    “It has been a privilege to work with you and serve the whole UN system. I cannot express enough my appreciation for the support, encouragement, guidance, patience, and friendship I received throughout these years from you,” said Ms. Songwe.

    Under her leadership, ECA played a key role in promoting the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) at national, subregional and continental levels; advocating for adequate resources to finance Africa’s COVID-19 recovery initiatives; fostering public-private partnerships; and promoting local manufacturing to ensure sustainable economic growth and reduce growth volatility in Africa.

    In the following document titled Q&A with the Executive Secretary, she reflects on her time at the ECA and what the Commission was able to achieve under her leadership.

    In a farewell note to staff on 31 August, Ms. Songwe said she was “pleased to convey the Secretary-General’s decision to designate Antonio Pedro (ECA’s Deputy Executive Secretary in charge of Programme Support) as Acting Executive Secretary, beginning 1 September 2022, until further notice.” She urged staff to extend their full support to Mr. Pedro.

    Out There Media And MTN Nigeria Bring RCS To Market, Achieving Outstanding Results For Mega-Brands’ Campaigns

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    Out There Media And MTN Nigeria Bring RCS To Market, Achieving Outstanding Results For Mega-Brands’ Campaigns

     Out There Media (OTM), the global leader in telco driven mobile advertising, announced that it has successfully launched the first Rich Messaging campaigns based on RCS (Rich Communications Services) with leading mobile operator, MTN Nigeria.

    RCS is the new standard of messaging that provides a native, “brand-safe” environment, turning messaging into an interactive, actionable, feature-rich experience, including rich media, high-resolution images, videos, chatbots, file transfer, payment, location sharing and much more. RCS brings the functionality of rich messaging apps like iMessage, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp directly into mobile phones without having to download any third-party app.

    The Rich Messaging campaigns have been launched using OTM’s creative services and proprietary mobile advertising technology Mobucks™. The news follows the launch of the partnership between OTM and MTN Nigeria announced last July, aimed at strengthening the mobile operator’s digital advertising strategy by driving advertiser interaction and engagement with its 65 million subscribers through this highly engaging, extremely interactive, and brand-safe digital messaging format.

    The first ground-breaking Rich Messaging campaigns have been launched with mega-brands such as Unilever Nigeria, the World Health Organization (WHO) and FilmOne Entertainment for movies like Dr. Strange and Wildflower. The campaigns yielded ground-breaking results with average engagement rates of 58% and average attention-based value of 26 seconds. These are ground-breaking results compared to the attention-based value of other formats, such as banners with 0.1 seconds, video ads with 4.9 seconds, social media ads with 1.6 seconds, and TV with 13.8 seconds, putting Rich Messaging at the forefront of advertising and media.

    Kerstin Trikalitis, Co-Founder and CEO, OTM, says: “It is rewarding to see how our growing partnership with MTN Nigeria is bearing fruit, working with leading brands to show the truly innovative and ground-breaking opportunities for RCS with Rich Messaging as a new media channel. Nigerian consumers are whole-heartedly embracing the opportunities brought by our unique, end-to-end, cloud-based and fully-managed Rich Messaging solution.”

    “Our proprietary technology platform, Mobucks™ takes full advantage of this new media channel allowing users to interact with brands in an unprecedented way. It produces a rich experience not yet seen in the marketplace and generates a highly effective return on investment for brands.”

    Lunga Mooi, Media and Digital Hub Director, Unilever, reveals his enthusiasm about Unilever brands, such as Closeup and Pepsodent, “embracing the opportunities to reach Nigerian consumers in ever more interesting ways and achieve unprecedented engagement rates than is possible with other formats.” Both campaigns achieved outstanding results with Closeup hitting a ground-breaking engagement rate of 60% and attention-based value of 27 seconds, Pepsodent 57% engagement rate and 25 seconds as attention-based value.

    FilmOne campaign witnessed equally successful results: 60% engagement rate and 29 seconds of attention value. Moses Babatope, Co-Founder and Managing Director, FilmOne Entertainment, states: “Over the years, embracing technologically innovative solutions has been a crucial part of our strategy for development. Hence, OTM’s pioneering sophisticated mobile advertising solution was a no-brainer to consider. We are excited to explore this medium that engages with our customers effectively.”

    Lynda Saint-Nwafor, the Chief Enterprise Business Officer (CEBO) at MTN Nigeria, says: “The FilmOne, WHO and Unilever Nigeria campaigns ran by Out There Media and MTN Nigeria demonstrate the value of RCS for mobile customers and brands alike. By using innovative solutions like Mobucks™, we can keep Nigerians connected and engaged with their favourite brands, and also informed about valuable health information.”

    Out There Media now not only enables MTN Nigeria to bring subscribers targeted, interactive messaging and rich media experiences from its chosen brand and agency partners, but also harnesses the power of RCS in Nigeria.

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