Television, radio, and other electronic media outlets are enjoined to plug into the network services of the Nigerian Television Authority and the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) for the broadcast.

Although Nigeria returned to democratic rule on 29 May, 1999, former President Muhammadu Buhari, in 2018, declared 12 June as the new date for the celebration of the country’s democracy.

The decision was to posthumously honour Moshood Abiola, the presumed winner of the 12 June, 1993 presidential election.

Before the new date, Democracy Day was celebrated annually on May 29.

This is the second time Nigeria will celebrate Democracy Day since President Tinubu assumed office in May 2023.

The Nigerian government has declared Wednesday as a public holiday to mark the restoration of democracy in Nigeria.

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The concert which was sponsored by MTN Nigeria started at 7pm with thrilling performances from opening acts.

The concert comes on the heels of the release of Brymo’s latest studio album ‘Theta’. The album which was released on May 27, 2022 is the crooner’s ninth studio album following previous releases such as Brymstone, The Son of a Kapenta, Tabula Rasa, Yellow among others.

MTN Nigeria’s sponsorship of the concert is in line with the brand’s position towards promoting Nigerian arts, culture and entertainment, with recent sponsorships of Asa’s live concert at Eko Hotel, VI, Lagos earlier this month and the Best Short Film or Online Video at the just concluded AMVCA awards.

Recall that in March this year, the leading digital solutions provider partnered with local tech company uduX to stream Davido’s historic concert at the London 02 Arena to over 700,000 fans, further strengthening the tech brand’s position as a foremost investor of digital innovation in the Nigerian music industry.

Commenting on the sponsorship of the event, Adia Sowho, the Chief Marketing Officer, MTN Nigeria, said, “We are delighted to support talented musicians such as Brymo. Entertainers who are constantly striving to sell the Nigerian culture to the world. Brymo is an inspiration to many, he is one of Nigeria’s leading lights and he deserves to be celebrated. At MTN, we remain passionate about investing in the arts, entertainment and fashion industry because we believe in harnessing and promoting our country’s boundless talent.”

The concert saw performances from Bumi Thomas, Reformdelacruz, Tunde Gautier, Jugo Aces, Noël Mio among others.

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On Friday, 5 August, MTN Nigeria officially concluded the 2022 Y’ello Care campaign at a closing ceremony held at the company’s Falomo, Ikoyi head office. 

Present at the event were MTN executives, MTN staff and ecosystem partners from Huawei, IHS and others.

21 Days of Y’ello Care is an annual employee volunteerism program for MTN staff to volunteer their resources (time, financial and skills) to empower local communities across Nigeria through capacity building and other forms of empowerment.

This year’s campaign was themed, “Empowering Communities to Drive Economic Recovery.” This inspired MTN employees to rise to the challenge of upskilling local communities to help boost economic activities.

MTN employees, alongside partners to the brand organised several financial inclusion and empowerment programmes for women, youth and children within various communities.

Employability training, graphics design masterclasses and hackathons were organised with several individuals and businesses empowered with start-up capital, devices and business equipment across Nigeria.

Mustapha Ibrahim, Director of Monitoring and Investigation, Lagos State Agency for Mass Education, while commending MTN’s effort at the Surulere Vocational Centre,  saying, “I am impressed with MTN’s commitment to growth and development, and I am not surprised because the company is well-known for this. We appreciate MTN’s support and are ready to continue partnering with you.”

Speaking at the closing ceremony, Esther Akinnukawe, the Chief Human Resources Officer, MTN Nigeria, said, “This year, our Y’ello Care initiative was focused on how we can give value to our communities enabling them to be more productive participants in the economy. It has been a privilege to give where we live, and we are truly grateful to the communities and people who received us. Thank you for believing, working with and trusting us to connect you to what matters most.”

MTN is committed to adding economic value by contributing to society through its programmes focused on digital education and capacity building. Through the Y’ello Care campaign, the company strives to ensure that it continues to strengthen and uplift community members in the pursuit of economic development. It is important to note that the Y’ello Care programme commenced in 2007.

The post Nigerians in 33 States, FCT Benefit from MTN 2022 Y’ello Care Initiative    appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

The Marketing World Awards recognise creativity and innovation among Public Relations, creative and communications agencies, brands, and personalities within the West African region.

For Modion Communications, the win is its third international recognition in 2022 after the agency clinched two SABRE Awards Certificates of Excellence for its’ # ZOLAEffect’ campaign for ZOLA Electric Nigeria and ‘Stand Back, Don’t Touch Me’, an in-house creative media relations tactic to support AriseTV Correspondent, over Police brutality in the course of her work.

Commenting on the award, Odion Aleobua, the Chief Executive Officer, Modion Communications,  said, “We thank the organisers of the Marketing World Awards for considering our creative endeavours deserving of this honour. This is our second Marketing World recognition in four years, now underpinned by other international, continental and regional recognitions befitting our status as an African ideas’ powerhouse.”

He added, “We are very proud as this win demonstrates our capacity to deliver superior, winning, creative and communications solutions to our growing clientele who have trusted us for their strategic communications solutions.”

In his remarks, Chief Executive Officer of Instinct Waves, the organisers of the award, Mr. Akin Naphtal, said, “Modion Communications have consistently demonstrated how disruptive the agency could be with their ideas and excellent capacity delivery. The agency is deserving of this recognition as proof of their inventiveness in the sector.”

Since commencing operations in 2015, Modion Communications has continued to provide cutting-edge public relations and marketing communications advisory to leading brands, organisations, small businesses, and government agencies across variegated sectors, including financial services, mobility, insurance, aviation, oil and gas, manufacturing, and renewable energy.

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When it comes to gender equality in the workplace, the African continent remains varied, with some regions – such as the southern, western and eastern parts of the continent – showing better progress in creating more gender-equal environments than others.

A study by the McKinsey Global Institute found that African firms had the highest share of female representation on company boards – 25% compared to the global average of 17%.

But while progress has been made at the top level of firms, women are less well represented in middle management. Notably, women make up 43% of individuals who receive a tertiary education yet hold only 28% of formal sector jobs.

On a global scale, a PwC report shows that women currently hold 19% of technology-related jobs at the top 10 global tech companies, compared to men who hold 81%. In leadership positions at these global tech giants, women make up 28% of the workforce, with men representing 72%.

Despite Research Professional News claiming that the ICT sector attracts more and more women across the African continent, which has the highest proportion of female STEM graduates, more needs to be done to address gender inequality.

Insufficient transformation

Not all parts of Africa have transformed sufficiently to meaningfully tackle the gender equality gap. In some countries, many industry sectors, including ICT, remain male-dominated.

This  is the result of a legacy culture, where women’s contribution to business is neglected. These attitudes need to change and are best overcome by developing a corporate culture that does not recognise gender, but the contributions made by all employees.

Instead of driving male-female quotas, companies should develop a culture that instils a balanced outlook across the entire organisation and that relies on the skills and abilities of the individual and what each employee can bring to the table.

More women leaders in mature markets

According to Grant Thornton, we’re starting to see a pronounced shift in some regions as women take up leadership roles.

This trend is particularly evident in more mature markets (e.g. Southern, Western and East African regions), where sustained efforts to drive gender equality over the last 10 to 15 years have resulted in greater workplace parity.

Organisational culture must filter down from senior leadership and needs to be shaped by the input of all employees.

Critically, organisational culture must also be inculcated across the entire organisation, so that it is the same in the company’s African office as it is at its European headquarters, giving employees a sense of being part of a single, focused environment.

Companies that instil this type of organisational culture across their global footprint are usually those that enjoy strong leadership that encourages collaboration among everyone in the organisation. Gender equality is usually part of these organisations’ DNA and they do not dwell on different genders and cultures but focus on a company culture that all employees adhere to.

Companies should realise that an effective leadership structure can no longer be based on a carrot and stick approach. By fostering an environment that is conducive to gender equality, only then will we start to see more balance in Africa’s ICT industry.

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Smoked foods have been a crowd-pleaser for centuries as people began to realize that smoked foods carried an authentic flavor compared to non-smoked food. Cooking over fire has become a part of many gastronomies, and has found its way into many cultures across various continents.

Amoking is the world’s oldest cooking method dating back to the era of primitive cavemen who hung meat over the fire to dry. It was soon realized that the smoke gives the meat a different flavor and helped preserve the meat better.

According to historians, the modern-day practice of smoked meat began in Turkey and was introduced to Romania by Turkish forces that invaded the country. Jewish butchers from Romania perfected the curing method, producing an exceptionally soft delicacy

The smoky technique has evolved over the years moving from community smoking and huge smokehouses to having a compact food smoker or a small, improvised smokehouse positioned at the back of a house.

The benefits of smoking foods include flavor enhancement, a great perseveration technique, reduces rate of food poisoning, and provides better food color and texture.

Smoke Acceptance in Africa

The smoke taste is taking foods to a whole new level. The incorporation of smoky flavor into African cuisine has been met with wide acceptance across the African continent. Africans have a bubbly smoke and grilled culture which makes smoking a traditional way of preserving food products. This preservation technique gives food a longer shelf life while creating a unique flavor and aroma.

An authentic African dish is incomplete without adding a smoky component as it adds layers of flavor and taste to the meal. The continent has a pervasive meat culture, with barbequed or grilled meat cultures. Whether Braai/Shisa Nyama in South Africa, Suya/Chinginga in West Africa, or Mushkaki/Nyama Choma in East Africa, the roasted and grilled meat culture is a pervasive one across the continent.

The wide acceptance of the smoke flavor prompted food manufacturers to develop smoky grill spices for people who want an elevated meal profile or don’t have access to smoky food components. Increasingly, these grilled spices have found their way into other applications.

Nigeria’s suya spices have become a popular seasoning for meals such as noodles, pasta, and commercial snacks (extruded corn, and potato chips).

Aome other smoky spices include – smoky BBQ seasonings for snacks and marinades; smoky chicken bouillon seasoning to enhance soups, stews, and sauces, and BBQ beef flavor for noodles application amongst others.

The Grill and BBQ trends seen in African restaurants, from high-end to low-end, reflects the love for the smoky flavor profile. Most menus have smoked or grilled meat, seasoned with smoky seasonings to deliver delicious cuisines.

Traditional foods associated with smoke

Africans have vibrant smoke and grilled cultures as smoking was a form of food preservation for most parts of the continent. In West Africa, eighty percent of fresh fish undergo a smoking process before consumption.

Most of the continent’s staples such as meat, fish, plantain, sweet potato, corn and yam are roasted as street food and other snacks, to create smoking signature profiles.

From Western Africa, the Nigerian Suya is made from beef, ram, offal, and chicken. It is marinated in dehydrated peanut cookies, ginger, salt, pepper, vegetable oil, and other spices before going over the fire – which adds complexity to the overall flavor while prolonging the shelf life, the Suya is dried further and is popularly known as Kilishi.

Dried fish is an important part of the region’s cuisine, acting as a flavor enhancer for soups and stews. Some of the dry fish popularly eaten within the region include stockfish, panla, bonga, adwene, agbodo, and koobi.

From Eastern Africa, Nyama Choma, a national dish of the Kenyan and Tanzania people, is prepared using preferably goat meat. The marinade includes salt, pepper, onions, garlic, ground ginger, and lemon juice.

From Southern Africa, the South African braai is made from game meat, goat and mutton prepared with Peri-Peri sauce, which is a combination of crushed chiles, lemon, pepper, garlic, salt, onion, bay leaves, vinegar, and oil. The braai forms a fundamental part of the South African culture as family and friends gather around a wood fire in a celebratory mood.

From Northern Africa, Méchoui is a whole sheep or lamb spit-roasted on a barbecue in Maghrebi cuisine. Méchoui is seasoned with garlic, onion, carrot, cumin, coriander, other spices, and butter. Méchoui is commonly prepared in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia.

Cooking methods delivering specific smoke profiles

The popular smoke party Jollof rice in West Africa got its name from the authentic smoke it delivers during the cooking process. The party Jollof rice delivers a different flavor when cooked on firewood, charcoal, and other forms of wood – Mahogany, Odum, and Wawa wood types in Africa.

In other parts of the world, woods like hickory, mesquite, apple, and beech woods are used to create smoke tonalities. Initially, this cooking process was most common among Jollof prepared at parties with firewood but now, people have found a way to incorporate the smoky flavor without necessarily cooking with firewood.

The latter could be achieved either by roasting the tomatoes, pepper, and onions and/or adding smoky seasonings. This gives the dish that smoky flavor and delivers the same taste as when cooked on firewood.

My daughter, Kayla, loves the rich creamy taste of roasted peanut butter soup, a local delicacy of roasted peanuts made into a paste and added to soup. The roasted peanut soup, which has a rich history, is a protein-rich meal that can be enjoyed with a vegetarian or chicken dish, and served with omotuo (rice balls), fufu or rice.

In South Africa, meat prepared on a gas grill can never be considered Braai. The most important component of the braai cook is the wood fire and cooking is done at a slow pace.

A traditional braai is cooked on local wood such as kameeldoring wood which burns slowly and gives good heat and coals, and wingerd wood burns very fast and doesn’t give lasting coals, but is great for giving aroma and flavor. A modern-day braai is cooked using charcoal.

A grill is placed over very hot coals and the meat is perfectly barbecued on the grill. Once the meal is cooked, the fire is fed throughout the braai. Either traditional or modern, both give the braai a distinctive flavor.

My friend, Sean Ryan, the Director of Commercial and Business Development Taste, Smoke and Grill at Kerry ingredients, corroborates this. According to him, cooking on smoke and fire is a flavor profile that is highly desirable and associated with some fantastic cuisine from Africa.

“As more people move away from this and cook with electric or gas coolers they will miss this taste profile in their products and they will want it put back in through seasonings and condiments.”

Symrise and Freddy Hirsch Smoke Platform: Creating specific profiles for the African market
To relieve the stress of having to smoke ingredients for meals, Symrise and Freddy Hirsch’s partnership has used its innovative platform and expertise in production and smoke technology to develop various authentic smoky and grill seasonings targeted at the West African market. The grill-type flavors are designed to recreate the “fresh-from-the-grill-without-an-actual-grill” taste.

Symrise and Freddy Hirsch Nigeria have invested in consumer research to understand the smoke patterns that are preferred by African consumers. The key objective was able to understand the customer-preferred attributes, create authentic smoke profiles that are accepted by the consumers, and meet the nostalgic needs of consumers when they eat.

The companies created a smoke toolbox for all savory applications – bouillon, snacks, marinades, noodles, pasta, and meat applications. In addition to the smoke flavor profiles, we were able to create authentic smoked African foods such as stockfish, crayfish, African chilli, and paprika.

Technology has made it easier for people to incorporate smoky flavors into their cuisine. The traditional smoking process has been modernized by creating taste molecules that capture the taste of smoking. The wood compositions used enables mild, savory or sweet notes. The flavors are available in African firewood seasoning, hickory seasoning, campfire seasoning, and flame-grilled seasoning.

The Freddy Hirsch and Symrise AG partnership is a marriage between a leading West African flavor manufacturer with local insights and a key player in the global flavor market, respectively. Together, we deliver effective solutions and improve taste perception through enhanced salivating properties in West Africa Foods. In addition, our collaboration continues to improve food innovation, ensures deep market penetration in West Africa and harnesses our joint flavor technology platforms to deliver authentic African flavors and enhancers.

Fresh from the grill without the grill

There is something quite primal about smoking food. The aromatic and pleasant smell of delicious food instantly puts a smile on your face and can trigger thoughts, experiences, and even emotions of hunger. Such smells bring us into a place of anticipation and happiness and connect us to memories of a time when humans only ate fresh from the fire.

It is hard to perceive smoky food and not feel like you should be eating it. Sometimes without looking for it, the smell comes evading your space, escaping from a neighbor’s kitchen or from that local bukka driving along the road. You can get the same incredible smell and flavor in your kitchen using the new range of authentic smoky and grill seasonings from Symrise and Freddy Hirsch Nigeria.

Having mastered the art and use of flavors and seasonings that exude the rich smoky grill flavor into food, the partnership has launched its grill-type flavors, which are designed to recreate the fresh-from-the-grill-without-an-actual-grill taste.

Africa has several opportunities for smoke profiles seeing that the smoke opportunities on the continent grow as grill and BBQ trends are increasingly becoming more popular among African restaurants. A popular African export is the smoky jollof rice, which is a ubiquitous staple in Nigeria’s quick-service restaurants.

Written by Kojo Brifo, Managing Director, Freddy Hirsch Nigeria, and Sofiane Berrahmoune, Sub Regional Director, Flavor, Africa Middle East, Taste, Nutrition & Health, Symrise.

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