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Realising Africa’s full potential lies in celebrating its home grown innovations and supporting its entrepreneurs. Kwesé TV, has invested in content which celebrates entrepreneurs from across the continent and introduced Kwesé Inc, a channel dedicated to programming exclusively for entrepreneurs. Showcasing the best case studies and success stories from across the globe, Kwesé Inc is also the home of African entrepreneurs.
In support of this, Kwese TV has commissioned Kenyan media and communications company Africa Insight to film SHiFT Africa, a TV show focusing on Africa’s most exciting innovators. SHiFT Africa, hosted by Okwi Okoh, will exclusively broadcast on the Kwesé Inc channel across the continent in the coming months.
Some of the world’s most exciting innovations have come out of Africa, this new show gives viewers a glimpse into the lives of Africa’s newest crop of entrepreneurs whose innovations show the potential to make a significant impact. The show aims to empower viewers by showing them first-hand how to take an idea from conception right through to fruition. SHiFT Africa will give viewers unparalleled access into the lives of these innovators who could be the continent’s next crop of home-grown millionaires.
Their critical success factors will be shared over 26 episodes which will showcase these impressive businesses and give aspiring entrepreneurs tangible case studies on which they can model their own success.
These innovators or SHiFTers as they are called, are effecting significant change in communities across Africa within a range of industries such as software engineering, medicine, the arts and many more.
The show is one of the many original African productions planned by Kwesé. The first batch of locally commissioned productions will showcase the essence of African communities and culture, spanning comedy, drama series, travelogue, lifestyle and reality shows, celebrating everything that is uniquely and proudly African.
Speaking about Kwesé’s commitment to supporting Africa’s entrepreneurs, President and Group Chief Executive Officer of Econet Media, Joseph Hundah explained, “Kwesé TV is the brainchild of one of Africa’s most-recognised and respected business leaders, Mr Strive Masiyiwa. Like him we are a business which is passionate about investing in Africa’s future and supporting entrepreneurs and business leaders is central to that. Who knows, we might be responsible for discovering the next Strive Masiyiwa, Aliko Danogote or Dr Precious Motsepe!”
The Africa Insight crew commenced filming in Kenya and Rwanda in January, and will visit Nigeria, Zambia, Tanzania, South Africa, Ghana, Uganda, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and DR Congo during the first season.
"We're thrilled to be working on such an ambitious project that shows off what we as Africans are doing to change our world," said Africa Insight head of video and the show's director, Joshua Werema.
Most of the pre-production, graphics, animation and episodic development has been created in-house by Africa Insight's full time team in Nairobi. Africa Insight also produces other exclusive programming for Kwesé TV including the iconic Basketball show Ball'n Africa, fronted by Silalei and Xtreme Outdoors Africa, presented by Michelle Morgan and Benni Langa. Okwi Okoh is known across Africa for his roles as a regional presenter for CCTV Africa and before that, as a presenter for Reuters' Africa Journal.
SHiFT Africa will join Kwesé’s extensive general entertainment line-up which includes premium first to market programming such as Nigerian comedy series Undergrads, UK drama series with an all Africa cast Kingmakers and Kenyan comedy series News Just In. There is something for everyone on Kwesé’s impressive programming line-up.
About Econet Media
A subsidiary company of the globally networked Econet Group founded by Executive Chairman Strive Masiyiwa, Econet Media is a dynamic content business driving the development of Kwesé, a fresh new television brand. Created for Sub-Saharan African audiences, Kwesé is inspired by the ‘TV everywhere’ revolution. As such, a range of Kwesé products will be made available on satellite and internet based platforms, including video-on-demand and mobile options.
Focussed on providing premium, affordable, exclusive viewing, Kwesé products will offer sports, music, movies, series, kids, lifestyle, faith, news and other programming. Consumers will also benefit from the infrastructural strength of Econet Media sister companies, Liquid Telecom and Econet Wireless.
Their expertise and capacity in the areas of mobile and fixed telephony services, broadband, internet, satellite and fibre optic networks will be utilized to establish Kwesé products. In addition, Econet Media has invested intensively to build its own operational assets.
For more infowww.kwese.com.
