RED Managing Director, Chude Jideonwo to speak  alongside Nkiru Asika, Ifeoma Williams and Chika Nwobi at the Social Media Week Lagos 2014 Synergy: The Influence of Social Media in 21st Century Entrepreneurship at The HotHouse  34 Allen Avenue Road, Ikeja on Thursday February 20, 2014 at 1pm

Synergy: The Influence of Social Media in 21st Century Entrepreneurship  is one of the 134 events at that Social Media Week Lagos 2014 and its is hosted by FFB.

Chude Jideonwo will be talking to young disruptive entrepreneurs with a strong desire to learn from real experiences about  Building a Nigerian brand with global recognition whilst leveraging on collaborations through social media.

Food, Fun & Business (FFB) is a platform for young entrepreneurial minds to network, bounce off ideas of each other, share their passion and create collaborations. It also furnishes an opportunity for excellent thought leaders in various fields to interact with The future of the nation in a fun and comfortable atmosphere.

 RED managing partner, Chude Jideonwo, was hosted by Studio Magazine last week.
The cocktail and talk shop, held in partnership with Calligaris at the Calligaris Flagship Store in Milan on Thursday, 13 February 2014 celebrated his achievement and focused on the media, entrepreneurship and the future of the continent.

He was interviewed by Anna Momigliano, the senior editor and by Federico Sarica, the chief editor. The event was attended by Milanese journalists, writers and influencers.

Photos of Chude Jideonwo, Anna Momigliano and Federico Sarica  of Studio magazine and Andrea Bocchiola  of Calligaris Design are below

Chude Jideowno, Anna Momigliano (Studio magazine), Federico Sarica (Studio magazine) and Andrea Bocchiola (Calligaris deisign)

The managing partner of RED and co-founder of The Future Project, Chude Jideonwo has been announced as one of the speakers at the first meeting of the Africa Philanthropy Forum (APF) – which holds on 24 and 25 February 2014 at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The first planning meeting of the African Philanthropy Forum will bring together such leaders to examine how the twin goals of expanding access and promoting equity will lead to increased opportunity throughout the continent, and how building a community of African philanthropists can contribute to Africa meeting its own development goals.

Said the conveners:

 This is a moment of opportunity for philanthropy in Africa; it can be a catalyst for the promotion of new ideas, collaboration and the cross-fertilization of practices across sectors. The continent’s philanthropists and social investors are already seeding promising enterprises and supporting effective NGOs, building a robust civil society able to advance Africa’s development goals. In the process, they are testing and demonstrating innovative solutions to festering social and environmental problems; helping to spur economic activity at the base of the pyramid, a step toward growing the middle class; and advancing transparency, accountability, and competence in the public, private and social sectors.

The APF is part of the Global Philantrophy Forum, which is committed to “Building a Community of Donors and Social Investors Committed to International Causes”

Speakers include Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, chairperson of the African Union Commission; Malik Fal, Africa Managing Director Omidyar Network; Jammie Drummound, co-founder ONE; Darlington Mandivenga, CEO Econet Services; Fred Swaniker, co-founder, Arican Leadership Academy; Reeta Roy, president and CEO, The MasterCard Foundation, James Manhi, CEO of Equity Bank, Ashish J. Thakkar, Founder of the Mara Group and Mara Foundation; Kesetebirhan Admasu, Minister of Health Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, amongst others. Toyin Saraki, president of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa will also be speaking.

For more information, please visit philanthropyforum.org.

Chude Jideonwo, managing partner of RED will be keynote speaker at a forum hosted by Studio Magazine focused on Nigeria and the media. The talkshop, held in partnership with Calligaris, holds at the Calligaris Flagship Store in Milan on Thursday, 13 February 2014.

The event, themed ‘Smart Attitude’ will host conversations around the prospects for media enterprises in Italy, Nigeria and across the world. Jideonwo will be sharing his experiences as a young, successful media entrepreneur in a fast-growing economy.

He will be interviewed by Anna Momigliano, the senior editor and by Federico Sarica, the chief editor, who is also former chief editor of Vice. The event will be attended by Milanese journalists, writers and influencers.

The event will also highlight Studio Magazine’s latest print issue themed ‘Cool Nigeria’.

RED Founding Partner; Adebola Williams is currently in South Africa with winners of the just ended Blackberry Big Sean Competition “X_Family Crew’

The competition had entrants between the ages of 18 and 23 upload their audio track under categories of rap, singing and spoken word between 15 November and 15 of December 2013. Winners of the competition “X_Family Crew” won a 3 day-trip all-expense paid tour with International Star Big Sean to South Africa, one on one time with him, plus VIP all access aasses to the Big Sean concert and private shows courtesy of BlackBerry.

Adebola Williams who has been in charge of the project and Blackberry Campus infilterations accompanied the winners to ensure they have a great time as promised by the brand.

Italy’s Studio magazine, in its latest print issue, has profiled our  Managing Director; Chude Jideonwo; christening him ‘The Poster Boy of Nigeria’. The story appears in the magazine’s ‘Cool Nigeria’ issue released this week.

In his interview with international journalist, Anna Momigliano; Chude speaks about the inspiration behind Africa’s leading youth event, The Future Awards Africa and building an innovative business with brands across print, television and online. He also shares his views on youth, the idea of ‘Africa Rising’ and his stand on the anti-modern elements that are still heavily present in Nigeria.

“Something is beginning to work these days,” says Chude Jideonwo about the new possibilities with Nigeria – across business, technology and the prospects of social change.

Also featured are co-founder of Jumia, Tunde Kehinde and international publisher, Uzoamaka Maduka.

To read more, visit HERE.

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Being a speech delivered by Chude Jideonwo, Executive Director of The Future Project, at The Future Awards Africa Best 100 ceremony at the State House Abuja on Sunday, 15 December to commemorate Nigeria’s centenary

“You are a widow? Go and die!”

You could imagine the shock that coursed through an entire nation when a sitting governor –incidentally a popular, performing one– spoke those words to a poor, widowed hawker. It was a singular and definitive moment—for her, for him, for me and for Nigeria.

While the nation screeched over that dreadful moment, I was stunned into a silence. That video yet depresses me for the frustration and the despair it reveals from both sides.

On the one hand was a frustrated governor weighted down by an uphill battle to improve the condition of his state, and on the other, a woman only trying to make ends meet because of a poverty ensured by leaders before him. Both with valid motivations and both caught in a vicious cycle that must be broken.

Of course, that governor – who is actually a man of the people – has done the right thing and apologised – but that statement continues to ring; capturing, as it did, the ethos, and pathos, of what it means to be a citizen in Nigeria for many of us.

Many people are frustrated. I too am frustrated. Exhausted by the sheer effort it takes to be Nigerians; going downstairs in the middle of the night to put on the generator, giving pocket money to your younger brother at home from a 5-month ASUU strike that just has to end, having a policeman harass you while you earn a honest living in your dutiful ‘danfo’, reading the newspapers on a daily basis. Frustrated by what seems like a systemic disregard for citizens – the legacy of leadership for us for many years.

And this is why people are so angry. That is why they can’t even isolate the good and celebrate it. And this is why when governments, or even corporates, speak of the good that they have done, and of course there is plenty of good across the states of the country, that agenda is lost in the din.

For many young people, this anger continues to rise, though that’s not necessary a bad thing, because it is better to be children of anger, than children of apathy.

But those same young people have given Nigeria so many reasons to celebrate; a huge part of the silver lining that still gives hope in our country.

I am so, so proud of my generation – and even prouder that The Future Awards Africa has continued to achieve its goal of profiling, creating, building, cheerleading or simply presenting a huge percentage of the young Nigerians that rule the world presently. And we have proven – especially with those gathered today, icons and influencers who are not necessarily celebrities, but who make things happen across they country across, technology, governance and advocacy – that much is possible in Nigeria, by Nigerians.

I am proud of our 2007 advocacy award winner Gbenga Sesan, who, has built lives and hands with Ajegunle.org, proud of our Young Person of the Year 2007, Tara Fela-Durotoye, who single-handedly built and fuelled the make-up industry in Nigeria with branches across 28 states and thousands of representatives.

It is easy these days to forget that Ndidi Nwuneli, whose LEAP Africa was NGO of the Year 2006 and who has built one of the continent’s most enduring non-government organisations, is barely 35.

There is Alkassim Abdulkadir, who has broken boundaries in international journalism and was Journalist of the Year 2012. I am proud of Tolu Sangosanya who won for advocacy in 2008 and subsequently raised millions of naira to help children be fed and educated at the Dustbin Estate in Lagos, and our Excellence in Public Service winner in 2011, Fatima Zara Modibbo, who has committed her skills to helping underprivileged children in the North.

I am proud of my team, including my partner Adebola Williams, the RED brain trust Mfon Ekpo, Aziza Uko, Alexander Yangs, Debie Magnut, Tolu Orekoya and our those who make it happen daily – Isime, Bukonla, Seun, Blessing, Tobi, Sola, Daphne, Hycinth, Samson, Samuel, Taye and everyone else – who have taken this group from a borrowed one-bedroom office in 2005 founded by three teenagers and built it into a 50-staff movement with offices in three countries, project chapters in eight and its founders named this year by Forbes as two of Africa’s best entrepreneurs under 30.

I am proud of Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, nominated for Actor of the Year 2006 and one of the awards strongest ambassadors, who was this year named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World.

I am proud of her and all the other young people joined her in making history, answering when we called in April 2010, marching on the streets of this same capital city to ensure the rule of law was obeyed. I am proud of those who came out in record numbers to Register, Select, Vote and Protect in 2011, and the young people who held the continent’s first youth-centred presidential debate moderated by our host today, Ebuka Obi-Uchendu.

And I am proud, sir, of those who stepped out to demand accountability in 2012, and those – led by ‘Yemi Adamolekun, Executive Director of EnoughisEnough Nigeria – who, in October this year, protested the deeply worrisome cost of running #OurNASS.

I am proud of my friends who are set to make a once-in-a-generation statement about the strength and impact of our numbers at the 100,000 Voices event in January 2014. And I am so proud of the guys at the Co—Creation Hub, who are incubating Nigeria’s next generation of ceiling crashers and businesses that just might take over the world.

We are a generation that has done a lot with so little, that has blossomed like roses amongst thorns. What we have asked for in return is not much – not shallow requests like ‘a youth minister who is below 30’, but something most important. We want the environment and the empowerment to keep expanding the value we are adding – amongst others, power solved once and for all, connectivity that is at par with the rest of the world, ministers who will actually do the needful.

Mr. President, some will say you are perhaps the first president in my lifetime to take young people seriously as a demographic, even if politically: I am excited when I see your communications technology minister take young Nigerian businessmen to Silicon Valley to broaden their impact or when your coordinating minister of the economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala name-checks e-commerce giants Konga and Jumia in important policy pronouncements or when you show off creative industry frontrunners in trips outside Nigeria.

And then there is agriculture, for which your very impressive minister – who is driving a revolution across the nation – just got rewarded as Africa’s Person of the Year.

Many are glad for these, especially when they look beyond the sound and the fury. What we are asking for is more. Because, as a generation, we deserve more.

And we know that we can do more if we get more.

That has been our mission at RED, to expand the opportunities and the space to build and create – through the jobs portal Aiki.ng launched last month in collaboration with Microsoft, through the m-Hub collaboration space for young people in the media, through Red Media SME Support and others.

This year, The Future Awards Africa has traversed the country. In Ekiti, we engaged directly and honestly with young leaders, in Lagos where we have continued our agenda of building through events with the United States government, the Tony Elumelu Foundation and the British Council, in Edo to build the capacity of young Nigerians, and in Addis Ababa working with the African Union to spread this message of possibility. That journey will continue, to Bayelsa, to Ondo, to Rivers to Akwa Ibom, to Osun, and across Africa. We are determined to sustain this change that we seek; determined to continue working as builders, cementing bridges that can drive change across the country, moving past our comfort zones and going beyond our anger – showing a better way for a new generation.

Because we are Nigerians. And we because we belong to this generation. It is in our character to keep walking, to keep moving, to keep pushing.

Born in a land blessed beyond comparison; we have struggled, we have been afraid, we have even failed, but we have risen time and again, because we are unified by hope, inspired by the possibilities. So here we are standing tall, through adversity, we will stand, we will shine, we will blossom; we will never stop.

I thank you Mr. President, for hosting our Best 100; I thank everyone who has helped to make today possible.

God bless you, God bless us all, and God bless Nigeria.

END.

RED Managing Partner Chude Jideonwo has been invited to speak at the Lipton Tea Party Flavoured tea launch happening on Friday, November 08, 2013.

Mr Jideonwo will be speaking to guests and encouraging them to develop their various skills/talents because the world today requires diversity and innovation.

RED Managing Partner Chude Jideonwo has been invited to join the panel at the CSR-in-Action seminar sub-themed – Policy, Affirmative Action and Sustained Growth is scheduled to hold on the 7th of November, 2013 at Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria between 8am and 4pm.

The seminar this year will gather key stakeholders to discuss and assimilate best practice and challenges in these industries with a view to finding solutions. The sub-theme for this year is aimed at addressing current challenges concerning implementation of policies to promote long term unity and development, by stimulating a meaningful exchange of ideas and best practices among key stakeholder groups and industry experts with a view to identifying effective strategies for improved development within the industries and local communities.

Other expected guests will include, H.E Diezani Alison Madueke, Minister of Petroleum, Nigeria; H.E Musa Mohammed Sada, Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Nigeria; Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, Former Vice President of the World Bank, Africa Region; Caroline Kende-Robb, Executive Director, Africa Progress Panel; George Abiodun Osahon, Director, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR); Frank Nweke Jr, Director General, Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) and other notable personalities.

It is expected this year’s seminar will provide a fresh outlook in terms of innovation and stimulating debates; through a series of social media platforms and collectively involved interactions including the youth, media, regulators and experienced veterans within the extractive industries, the event is expected to address the inter-link between appropriate policy, collective commitment and sustainable growth.