Flavour brings joy to fans in The Gambia

 Coconut Residence in collaboration with Virtual Exchange Production recently hosted Nigeria’s music sensation, Chinedu Okoli (aka Flavour) last week in The Gambia with Independence Flavour Concert which held at Banjul National Stadium, Gambia. More

The concert was part of the country’s 49^thIndependence celebrations, which had over 7,000 fans in attendance. They include, Her Excellency Aja, Dr. Isatou Njie – Said, The Gambia’s Vice President and other government officials, who all came to see Flavour perform in Gambia for the first time.

During the concert, Flavour also donated materials like exercise books, mathematical sets, stationeries and refreshments to Jammeh Foundation For Peace Orphanage.

Flavour said: “ Through my charity, Mr. Chinedu Okoli Music Foundation, I want to touch the lives of the needy wherever I go beyond music in simple ways that I can. I want to put smiles on the face of people and help them. It’s The Gambia’s independence and this is my first time here. I’ve chosen to remember children at the Jammeh Foundation for Peace Orphanage to contribute my quota to their development.

“ It’s not all about giving a great performance at concerts and collecting performance fees and spend it alone. No! but it’s also about contributing to the lives of the people of the various countries we visit who genuinely need help.”

During the show, the fans danced to some of Flavour’s hit tracks while some of them cried in excitement for having the opportunity of seeing the music icon.

Winners emerge at MTN Afrinolly film competition

Namibia’s filmmaker, Florian Schott’s Everything Happens for a Reason, has won $25,000 for the short film category while Nigeria’s Victor Okoye’s Creative Minds, also won $25,000 for the Documentary category at the MTN Afrinolly film competition. The ceremony took place at MUSON Centre, Lagos. more

In the short film category, Daniel Etim Effiong’s Your Cup of Tea was first runner-up with $10,000 while Gbenga Salu’s 10:10 was second runner-up with $5,000.

In the documentary category, Ronke Ogunmakin’s Awele’s Diary, was first runner-up with $10,000 and Ng'endo Mukii’s Yellow Fever was second runner-up with $5,000.  Other finalists in both categories received $500 respectively.

General Manager, Consumer Marketing, MTN Nigeria, Kola Oyeyemi, said: “ MTN will always love to develop every area where it operates. Our core objective for sponsoring Afrinollyis to empower African youths to tell their own stories from their own perspective and eliminate financial barriers to movie production. We look forward to create a new generation of content providers in the African movie industry”. He said

According to Schott, “ It is amazing. I am more than excited for coming tops in the MTN Afrinollyshort film category. My success was based on the passion I had put in. The extra efforts, I made in achieving this and a lot of my fans that voted for my film. I am extremely grateful to MTN for the $25,000 prize money as it will help in promoting the Namibian film industry because, I will re-invest the money into film production in my country.”

Victor Okoye also said: “It is a great privilege to win this competition and I say a big thank you to God Almighty and MTN Nigeria for their continuous support in providing reliable platform for future stars to be discovered.” He said.

“ The MTN Afrinollyshort film competition is a unique, innovative and youth-focused competition, with singular concentration on the next generation of African filmmakers. The competition is designed to expand the conversations on issues about the continent by Africans and to motivate and reward young and emerging film makers who exhibit exceptional narrative skills, using short movies and documentary as a medium.”