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Women in Cross River state have demanded 50% inclusiveness in the next government. The women in the state said it would be important to have many women from the state as commissioners and ministers. The demand was made by the first lady of Cross River state on behalf of the women.

Some women in Cross Rivers state have demanded 50% affirmative action from the next government at all levels across states in Nigeria.

The women who made their demand during the visit of Jennifer Douglas-Abubakar, the wife of the presidential candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar to Cross River state.

In continuation of Atiku’s wife’s series of town hall meeting across states in Nigeria, the first lady of Cross River state Linda Ayade said, although the women would pull out 50% of the total votes, it would be necessary that they get 50% inclusiveness when the government is formed.

Linda who spoke on behalf of the women in the state said it would be important to have many women from the state as commissioners and ministers.

“When we say this state is for PDP 100%, be assured that more than 50% of them are women. We are warriors and we want to assure you that we shall go out there and win the trophy,” Linda said.

“In Cross River, no woman no vote. We shall prove to Nigerians that Cross River state has political weight.

“As we pull our weight and pull 50% in Cross River, we also demand that in this state, the women affirmative be increased to 50%.

“We are going to pull 50%. We’ll contribute 50%, we’ll get 50%. We want some of you here to become commissioners, political office holders,” she added.

In her reaction, Jennifer said the programs and policies mapped out for Nigerian women by her husband would not be possible if the women did not mobilise massively for his victory.

“Atiku will not do anything for you if you do not vote for him to get to Aso Rock. You have to work hard for him to be voted into office. Go and collect your PVCs.

“It is going to be a defining election. It is done. When the sun rises tomorrow, we will send Atiku to Aso Rock,” Jennifer said. Jennifer who was accompanied by Margaret Obi, wife of the PDP vice presidential candidate, told the crowd that, the Atiku and Obi team had a better policy on job creation, restructuring, education and other areas of concern in the country.

Also Senator Florence Ita-Giwa, former special adviser to President Olusegun Obasanjo on National Assembly matters said she had to return to PDP for the sake of Atiku Abubakar.

“I served Atiku as Adviser for 4 years. Even me as Adviser, I can make a good President, not to talk of a man who works 24 hours.

“We want human being to be president, not somebody who is not reachable or can not communicate,” Ita-Giwa said. In his remark, the governor of the state Ben Ayade assured Mrs. Abubakar of total support for the PDP candidates in the forthcoming elections. He also urged women in the state to, “come out on Friday to receive Alhaji Atiku Abubakar”, who will be visiting the state for presidential campaign.

Mrs. Abubakar also visited the Obong of Calabar’s palace, where the entire traditional council gave blessings to the aspiration of her husband.Meanwhile, LEGIT.NG previously reported that Atiku had said he would end the lingering strike by university lecturers in the country, from his first day at work.  Atiku made the pledge on Sunday evening at the Silverbird Man of the Year event which took place in Lagos. Legit.ng gathers that the former vice president referred to the ongoing ASUU strike as “disgraceful”; and hence, will receive his first attention as president if voted into office in the February 16 presidential election.

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from Disrupt Africa http://bit.ly/2DnheB5

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South African property startup Flow has officially launched to the public on the back of securing funding recently, with several thousand tenants having already come on board.

Founded by Daniel Levy, Gil Sperling and Jonathan Liebmann, Flow rewards tenants for registering, adding their property details, paying their rent on time, and looking after their homes.

Disrupt Africa reported last month the startup raised a ZAR20 million (US$1.47 million) funding round, with half coming from South African venture capital firm Kalon Venture Partners and the other half from an international VC, to fuels its growth and add to its service, and the Flow platform has now formally launched to the public.

“Before then we were in stealth mode with several hundred tenants and landlords using the app while in beta. Since launch in the past week we’ve had several thousand tenants come onboard and engaging with several transactions made,” Sperling, who is Flow’s chief executive officer (CEO), told Disrupt Africa.

He said Flow is a long-term rental platform that is an end-to-end solution for home rentals.

“Our vision is to create a globally recognised and trusted rental brand where tenants and landlords meet to experience the full rental journey from searching to signing a lease, moving in, paying rental and then getting rewarded for being a great tenant,” he said.

The Flow founding team has serious pedigree in the entrepreneurship and property spaces. Sperling and Levy previously founded Popimedia, an ad-tech company that was sold to Publicis in 2015. Liebmann founded and developed Maboneng, a regenerated area of the Johannesburg CBD. Sperling said the property space was ripe for disruption.

“Proptech is one of the least advanced verticals of technology, relative to fintech, adtech and healthtech. There has been relatively little development in the technology that the property industry uses, and most specifically when it comes to tenants – that’s where we play,” he said.

Flow is currently available across South Africa, and has plans to expand into other markets. At this point it makes money by charging landlords license fees, but soon it will also have revenue shares through its reward partner marketplace and premium product offerings.

The post SA property startup Flow launches to public post-funding appeared first on Disrupt Africa.

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The Johannesburg-based Founders Factory has opened applications for its African accelerator, a six-month, corporate-supported programme that aims to give startups an “unfair competitive advantage”.

Founders Factory launched in London in 2015 and has already built 70 startups, raised GBP100 million (US$130 million) in funding, and implemented 60 pilots with its corporate partners.

Disrupt Africa reported in October Founders Factory had launched its African operations in Johannesburg, from where it plans to design, build and scale 100 disruptive tech startups across Africa over the next five years.

The African launch took place in partnership with Standard Bank, which made a multi-million dollar investment into Founders Factory Africa. The company will grow existing businesses through its bespoke six-month accelerator programme, whilst an incubator will build completely new businesses focused on addressing key issues on the continent.

Applications for the accelerator are now open, with Founders Factory looking for startups in the fintech and e-health spaces to apply. Participating startups will also have access to global capital, talent and knowledge transfer through the Founders network, which includes world-class entrepreneurs, investors, corporates and successful startups across Africa, Europe, the UK and the US.

Standard Bank will provide access to market, supply chains, customer acquisition channels, data and IP to the startups. These resources and infrastructure will deliver an “unfair competitive advantage” to the businesses that Founders Factory Africa scales.

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South African startup bizAR Reality, a software development company that specialises in augmented and virtual reality (VR) solutions, started life in a garage four years ago. Now it develops immersive software for mobile devices, virtual reality headsets and augmented reality smart glasses for some of the world’s biggest companies. ​

Though it started small, bizAR Reality always had grand goals, and the startup has worked with some of the world’s largest brands, including Avatar Agency, Nestle, AIG, Adidas and Burger King.

“We are driven towards creating futuristic, sustainable and immersive experiences for both businesses and individuals in South Africa,” sales and marketing director Richard Melvin told Disrupt Africa.

“When we started the company, augmented and virtual reality were terms that felt like science fiction to many South Africans. We saw this as an opportunity to travel abroad to places like Silicon Valley, Argentina and Finland to get a better understanding of what was happening abroad.”

By strategically analysing the overseas markets, the founding team was able to identify opportunities in South Africa and used this knowledge to build a thriving business. This was boosted by some seed funding in 2015, with bizAR reality since then funded by its revenues.

The company has reached a number of impressive milestones.

“In 2015, we were the first company to develop an AR to VR Content Management System (CMS) for mobile applications, allowing us to offer both augmented and virtual reality capabilities in one application that could be updated in real-time, without waiting for approvals by the relevant app stores,” Melvin said.

2018 proved a particularly promising year, which won a host of awards for its applications, but it is always looking to adapt.

“As technology advances, so should we. After many years of research and development, our dynamic team has designed and developed one of Africa’s first remote expert system using augmented reality smart glasses. Due to its popularity and growth potential, a strategic decision was made to branch the product off from bizAR Reality into its own company brand called FusionBloc,” said Melvin.

The startup foresees further growth as technologies such as VR continue to grow exponentially, which they will do due to the fact they have numerous applications and value-adding benefits across multiple industries.

“Therefore, bizAR Reality operates on a project-based level having done projects for numerous companies across varying industries, ranging from mining to fast food chains,” Melvin said.

“Currently, our augmented reality smart solution is tailored towards connecting field technicians with remote experts and we are in the process of developing the software solution to cater for both warehouses picking and workflow processes. Our vision for FusionBloc smart glass technology includes rolling the system out into South Africa and then to rapidly expand across the African continent.”

The post Garage to global – how this SA startup develops VR solutions for major firms appeared first on Disrupt Africa.

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