The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) presents prizes to the best young comedian and the best young slam poet in West Africa at the closing ceremony of the 13th Edition of the Marché des Arts du Spectacle d’Abidjan (MASA) 2024 (the Abidjan Performing Arts Market in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire on April 20, 2024.

The ECOWAS Prizes of USD 3000 and USD 2000 respectively is to support and encourage the artistic creativity of the youths and promote integration, social cohesion, peace, and socio-economic and cultural development in the Region.

H.E. Fanta Cisse, the Resident Representative of ECOWAS to Côte d’Ivoire while presenting the

Prizes at the closing and award ceremony emphasised the commitment of ECOWAS to develop cultural and creative industries, as well as the market for cultural goods and services, support the professionalization of cultural creators and actors.

This is the 4th edition of MASA that ECOWAS has been giving prizes in these two categories for the benefit of young Artists. The first Prize is for best young comedian in West Africa; three thousand (3000) US Dollars, while the Second Prize of two thousand (2000) US Dollars is  for the best young slam poet. The winners are selected by a jury nominated by ECOWAS from Member States through a transparent process.

The winners for the 13th Edition of MASA for the ECOWAS Prize are: Nin’wlou, from Côte d’Ivoire, Prize for the best young slam poet in West Africa for his show, “The Fire Walk” and Bappa Oumar from the Republic of Guinea, the Prize for the best young comedian in West Africa for his show “the stranger”.

ECOWAS provides financial support and plays a crucial role in the overall organisation of the Abidjan Performing Arts Market (MASA). This shows the Community’s commitment to use arts and culture in the promotion of peace and regional integration.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

African Hidden Champions (AHC) will host an exclusive Soirée on April 24, 2024, in Johannesburg to convene and celebrate entrepreneurial spirit with top African founders taking on the global stage. The event will also feature a private concert with award-winning South African artist, Ami Faku. 

African Hidden Champions, a co-partnership of Africa Foresight Group, Germany’s development finance institution DEG – Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft and the African Development Bank, was founded in 2020 and now has more than 25 dynamic African firms in its network. It works to support companies to move to global expansion through visibility, technical assistance, innovation, talent, and investment support. This event, dubbed “Proudly Local, Boldly Global,” is also supported by British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance institution (DFI) and impact investor.  

The evening will feature opening addresses by Kuseni Dlamini, Chairman of Aspen Pharmacare and AHC Ambassador; Anne Keppler, Regional Director for Southern Africa at DEG; and Chris Chijiutomi, Managing Director and Head of Africa at BII. It will include  a fireside chat with AHC Company founder, Dare Okoudjou, founder and CEO of Onafriq. 

“Investing in Africa’s businesses goes beyond just capital; it’s about believing in our potential to lead on the global stage. This Soirée is our testament to the world: Africa is not just rising; it is ready to lead,” said Yasmin Kumi, AHC Co-Founder and CEO of Africa Foresight Group, emphasizing the importance of collaborative efforts in achieving long-term goals on the continent.  

In addition to engaging in discussions and networking opportunities,  attendees will be treated to a private concert by Faku, showcasing the continent’s vibrant spirit and cultural richness.  

“Intentional investments and empowerment of African companies create value far surpassing what individuals can achieve alone. This Soirée is a celebration of what we can accomplish together and a look forward to the boundless possibilities ahead to be proudly local and boldly global,” said Thomas Viot, Chief Investment Officer at the African Development Bank Group.

Chris Chijiutomi, Managing Director and Head of Africa at BII, said: “As Africa’s first DFI, we have been supporting private sector growth and innovation across the continent for over 75 years. This celebration reflects our commitment to empower local businesses that are critical to drive forward a prosperous and sustainable economic future for Africa. This includes increasing our focus on black-owned and led businesses and funds across our portfolio.”

AHC embodies the entrepreneurial mindset of African homegrown businesses believing in their global potential, which is underlined throughout the initiative’s work, spanning visibility, support services and events. Once a year, new member companies sign the AHC declaration to commit to the same spirit. Together, the 25+ member companies generate revenues surpassing $8.3 billion, provide employment to a 78,000-strong workforce, and extend their reach across 14 African nations.  

To learn more about the event, visit the AHC website (www.AfricanHiddenChampions.co/).

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Development Bank Group (AfDB).

Media Contacts:
African Hidden Champions:
Bernard Adjei
Community Manager  
bernard.adjei@africaforesight.com

African Development Bank:
Amba Mpoke-Bigg
Communication and External Relations Department  
a.mpoke-bigg@afdb.org

Africa Foresight Group:
DEG:
Katja Fingerhut
Marketing&Communications 
Katja.Fingerhut@deginvest.de

BII:
Paschorina Mortty
Communications Department
press@bii.co.uk

About AFG:
AFG is a talent technology company in Africa that focuses on developing innovative products and services to accelerate private sector development on the continent.  AFG aims to build African people and companies into global champions through technology and networks. The company is known for three brands: African Hidden Champions, which is the top scaling platform for African mid-sized businesses to grow into global companies; Peralta, a managed marketplace for placing top talent with businesses across the continent; and AHEAD, a training community of top empowered young African professionals, including the diaspora.

For more information: www.AfricaForesight.com

About DEG:
For more than 60 years, DEG has been financing and advising private enterprises operating in developing and emerging-market countries. With a portfolio of around EUR 10.3 billion we’re one of the largest private-sector development financiers. As an impact and climate investor we accompany companies that are addressing transformation and aiming to seize their opportunities. Our customers not only receive financing and advisory solutions tailored to their needs: they can build on our market knowledge, our impact and climate expertise and our international network. In this way, DEG, a subsidiary of KfW, contributes to creating more skilled jobs and local income and to improving value creation on the ground in line with the SDGs.

For more information: www.DEGInvest.de 

About British International Investment:
British International Investment (BII) is the UK’s development finance institution and a trusted investment partner to businesses in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. It invests to support the UK Government’s Clean Green Initiative and to create productive, sustainable, and inclusive economies in eligible markets. Between 2022 and 2026, at least 30 percent of BII’s total new commitments by value will be in climate finance. The company has investments in over 1,470 businesses in emerging economies across 65 countries and total assets of £8.1 billion. For further information about BII and its impactful initiatives, please visit: www.BII.co.uk | watch here (https://apo-opa.co/4aPc6nR) .

About the African Development Bank Group:
The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) is Africa’s premier development finance institution. It comprises three distinct entities: the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Development Fund (ADF) and the Nigeria Trust Fund (NTF). On the ground in 44 African countries with an external office in Japan, the AfDB contributes to the economic development and the social progress of its 54 regional member states.

For more information: www.AfDB.org

Parliament passed five key bills, moving gender and special interest entities to the National Secretariat for Special Interest Groups under the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development.

In a plenary session held on Friday, 19 April, 2024 chaired by Speaker Anita Among, the National Youth Council, National Women’s Council, the National Council for Older Persons, National Council for Persons with Disabilities, and National Children’s Authority were all moved to the Ministry of Gender in a rationalisation move.

Parliament passed the National Youth Council (Amendment) 2024, enabling the mainstreaming of the functions of the secretariat of the National Youth Council into the Ministry of Gender, Labour, and Social Development.

According to the report of the Committee on Gender, Labour, and Social Development, the country may lose highly experienced technical officers because the bill does not guarantee their redeployment in the National Secretariat. “Government should give priority to technical experts and the highly skilled while staffing the National Secretariat so that the Government does not lose on the return on investments, ” the report read in part.

Hon. David Kabanda (NRM, Kasambya County) tasked the Minister for Gender to give assurance to the country and to the youth leaders that the special interest groups will still be funded independently or they were going to be under one secretariat.

Hon. Jane Avur (NRM, Pakwach District Woman Representative) questioned how the secretariat will pay special attention to vulnerable youths including the fishing communities.

Speaker Among stated that youths are represented in Parliament through the youth MPs who will ensure that their constituencies are covered.

Among also stated that the government will appropriate money to the Ministry of Gender, and money will go to the youths, persons with disabilities, women, older persons, and children, adding that if it means ring-fencing, Parliament will do that.

AUDIO Speaker Among

The Minister for Gender, Labour, and Social Development, Hon. Betty Amongi reaffirmed that the councils have not been affected. “Under the executive secretary are the departments headed by a programme manager in charge of youth, women, persons with disabilities, older persons, and children. The act permits each of these councils to approve their budgets, so they will approve their budget in their councils and give it to their programme manager, and they will still have a subvention,” she stated.

AUDIO Minister Amongi

Parliament also rationalised the National Children’s Authority and mainstreamed its functions into the ministry responsible for children affairs, which is the Ministry of Gender, Labour, and Social Development.

This was through the approval of the Children (Amendment) Bill 2024, which sought to dissolve the National Children’s Authority.

Although the report of the Committee on Gender called for an independent body to work for children affairs, the House resolved to take the entity to the Ministry of Gender. “The committee strongly argues that children being of tender age and highly vulnerable to exploitation, their issues should be given urgent and special attention,” the report read in part.

Parliament also adopted the proposal to mainstream the functions of the secretariat of the National Women’s Council into the Ministry of Gender, Labour, and Social Development by passing the National Women’s Council (Amendment) Bill 2024.

The committee, however, expressed reservations about this due to the fact that women, being a marginalised group in society, are highly vulnerable to mistreatment and exploitation.

Parliament also passed the Persons with Disabilities (Amendment) Bill 2024 sending it under one secretariat of the Special Interest Groups. Additionally, Parliament also passed the National Council for Older Persons (Amendment) Bill 2024, sending its management to the national secretariat of the Special Interest Groups under the Ministry of Gender.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Parliament of the Republic of Uganda.

Kaspersky (www.Kaspersky.co.za) introduces its new flagship product line ‘Kaspersky Next’ combining robust endpoint protection with the transparency and speed of EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response) alongside the visibility and powerful tools of XDR (Extended Detection and Response). Customers can now choose one of three product tiers tailored to their business requirements, the complexity of their IT infrastructure, and their available resources.

According to Enterprise Strategy Group’s “SOC Modernization and the Role of XDR” report (https://apo-opa.co/3U7TsR1) from a survey conducted together with Kaspersky, 52% of companies state security operations are more difficult today than they were several years ago. Primary reasons for this challenge are: the evolving and rapidly changing threat landscape (41% of respondents named it); the expanding attack surface (40%); the lack of cybersecurity skills or staff to keep up with security analytics and operations (20%).

Amid the constantly evolving cyberthreat landscape, it is vital for companies to have a comprehensive cybersecurity solution they can trust and rely on for effective protection. As a leading innovative and technological company, Kaspersky is continuously developing its solutions to address all the cybersecurity requirements of businesses, helping them build up reliable cybersecurity frameworks.

Kaspersky Next is a new line of cybersecurity products that includes robust endpoint protection powered by AI capabilities, and goes beyond the classic EPP (Endpoint Protection Platform), bringing together EDR and XDR for corporate customers of any size and industry. As the most advanced and effective cybersecurity solutions, EDR and XDR help companies to withstand the more prevalent, evasive, and sophisticated attacks, providing businesses with total visibility, control, rapid response and proactive threat hunting.

Kaspersky Next is deployment-agnostic and allows for both cloud and on-premise installations. Companies can manage it either through a streamlined console to perform core cybersecurity tasks quickly, or via an enterprise-grade console with more granular controls and advanced monitoring.

The new product line helps companies build crucial cybersecurity functions, to provide robust protection against multiple types of threats that business face the most, such as ransomware, malware and data breaches, and avoid infrastructure penetration through Business Email Compromise, supply chain attacks, exploits and other vulnerabilities.

Kaspersky Next includes multiple automation features such as cloud monitoring and blocking, vulnerability and patch management, IoC (Indicator of compromise) scan and playbooks that help businesses not only to support the effective detection and remediation of complex and new threats, but also to significantly reduce the burden on cybersecurity teams by minimising the number of routine cybersecurity tasks.

Kaspersky Next currently comprises of three product tiers:

Kaspersky Next EDR Foundations provides powerful endpoint protection that identifies and neutralises threats before they can harm business processes. Flexible, straightforward security controls and built-in IT scenarios enable hands-off operation and let companies customise their security policies to suit their unique needs. This solution is recommended for companies where information security is performed by IT departments.

Kaspersky Next EDR Optimum provides strong endpoint protection with essential EDR functionality, advanced controls, patch management and cloud security. Threat visibility, investigation and response are guided to help businesses deflect attacks rapidly and with minimal resources. This solution is recommended for companies with small information security teams.

Kaspersky Next XDR Expert aggregates, analyses and correlates data from various sources across an organisation’s IT infrastructure, providing real-time visibility and deep insights into evolving cyber risks to deliver advanced threat detection and automated response. It’s the robust cybersecurity solution that can also integrate with third-party vendors. This solution is recommended for companies with experienced cybersecurity teams or Security Operations Centers (SOC).

Kaspersky Next is a part of the company’s B2B product ecosystem and it is designed to be directly compatible with other Kaspersky solutions and services. With the growing demand for more comprehensive cybersecurity protection, companies can also easily migrate from one tier to another depending on their current cybersecurity requirements.

Anton Ivanov, Chief Technology Officer at Kaspersky, said: “Today we are launching our market-leading XDR and reinventing our corporate product offering, as we embark on a new chapter of our history as a B2B vendor. Kaspersky Next makes EDR and XDR simpler for companies and organisations of all sizes. We are bringing top protection powered by unique expertise to all customers – from those with zero cybersecurity officers to those that have experienced cybersecurity teams. Our goal is to allow companies to build reliable and cost-effective information security systems of the highest quality for their specific requirements.”

To learn more about Kaspersky Next, please visit the website (https://apo-opa.co/3UtByta).

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Kaspersky.

About Kaspersky:
Kaspersky is a global cybersecurity and digital privacy company founded in 1997. With over a billion devices protected to date from emerging cyberthreats and targeted attacks, Kaspersky’s deep threat intelligence and security expertise is constantly transforming into innovative solutions and services to protect businesses, critical infrastructure, governments and consumers around the globe. The company’s comprehensive security portfolio includes leading endpoint protection, specialized security products and services, as well as Cyber Immune solutions to fight sophisticated and evolving digital threats. We help over 220,000 corporate clients protect what matters most to them. Learn more at www.Kaspersky.co.za.