George Twumasi ia graduate of the National Film and Television Institute in Ghana, is a creative visionary who is actively focused on the creation and design of a sound intellectual framework by, which a commercially viable public service news and entertainment African television broadcasting network can be established via www.abnafrica.tv. The network would comprise a bouquet of original African free-to-air television and low-cost pay-tv channels with the goal to enlighten hundreds of millions of African households through socially engineered infotainment and edutainment learning. George is also working towards the launch of www.abicoos.com, an African infotainment and edutainment inspired digital mobile lifestyle platform. Including animated African folklore and third-party, user generated content applications, the goal is to reach 400 million smartphones and mobile tablets on the continent of Africa by 2025 via www.abicoos.com
Emmanuel K. Akyeampong is the President of the African Public Broadcasting Foundation in the US and an Executive Board Director of the African Public Broadcasting Foundation in the UK. He is the Ellen Gurney Professor of History and of African and African American Studies and; Oppenheimer Faculty Director of the Harvard University Center for African Studies. Emmanuel is also a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (FGA), and a Corresponding Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (UK). He is also a co-founder and director of the International Institute for the Advanced Study of Cultures, Institutions and Economic Enterprise (IIAS: www.interias.org.gh) based in Accra, Ghana. He previously served as chair of the Committee on African Studies at Harvard from July 2002 to June 2006.
Mary Goodyear has a long and remarkable professional track record as an analytic market researcher with a strong passion for African cultures. She specialised in international consultancy for many multinational companies and institutions, including the BBC and Diageo and is well-travelled across the West African region and the Caribbean. Mary, who graduated as a psychologist from the University College of London in 1965, brings a wealth of experience to APBF team in the understanding of sub-Saharan African cultures and it’s rich, underlying value systems.
Robert Soteriou has been actively involved in the development of APBF in both the UK and in the USA. Robert is a professionally qualified chartered accountant who worked for Price-Waterhouse, before becoming senior partner of his own firm, which he has run for more than 30 years. Robert is responsible for the practical implementation of the goals of APBF, which its management executive will drive on a day-to-day basis.
Consultants - The people making things happen
Simon Spanswick and his team at the AIB have agreed to provide APBF with interim management services in order to ensure a successful launch. The goal is to establish APBF as a reputable African public service focused digital content publishing and multi-platform broadcast enabling organisation. Simon is a founder director of the AIB. His career spans both public and commercial sectors and for many years he has been closely involved in digital broadcasting.
Phil Molefe is APBF’s Sub-Saharan African Television Industry Relations Adviser. His major role is to assure public sector broadcasters about the value of an efficiently structured public service focusing on digital content publishing and the creation of Regional Editorial Boards, which APBF will spearhead as Africa transitions to digital terrestrial television. Phil has been a journalist for over 30 years, working for several South African publications, including SASPU National, Weekly Mail and The Star. Phil Molefe is the current Chairperson of South Africa’s National Film and Video Foundation (www.nfvf.co.za)
Sal Souza, an Industrial Designer who speaks 9 languages (English – Dutch – Konkani – Vlaams), an expert New Media / User Xperience programmer, and multi-disciplinary project management (fintech, medtech, edutech, VR, AR and ecosystems). Sal is a skilled communicator, able to maintain cultural sensitivity, establish rapport with cross-disciplinary groups and promote team cohesiveness. Sal Souza is the managing partner for ABN’s new catalogue of digital content, multimedia, games, audio visual content and smart tools. He is the founder of Ofamfa®, Cineformat® and AntuBOX®.
Advisory Board - The people shaping the vision
Chris Read, a graduate of University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, is a TMT focused Conference Manager at Knect 365. He is responsible for bringing together and connecting Africa’s public service broadcasting media’s community, at senior level, together with the right players in technology, telecommunications and media investment, to accelerate the growth of a new digital ecosystem with less risk.
Gillian Rose is APBF’s Content Strategy and International Television Industry Relationships Adviser. She is Senior Vice President, US Sales and Acquisitions, with Sky Vision, part of European media company Sky, based in New York. Prior to this she was Managing Director of PBS Distribution, a company owned jointly by PBS and WGBH Boston.and before that Head of Distribution for WNET, New York’s flagship PBS station, and executive-in-charge of WNET’s lifestyle programming. She is a two-term Chair of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) New York and former Co-Chair of the International Emmy Awards Committee. She has a Masters Degree in Communication for Development and is also President/Founder of The Rosemary Pencil Foundation, a non-profit that works in Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia.
Before taking up his position at AMI, Eric Chinje served as Senior Advisor at the KRL International LLC, a Washington-based consultancy specializing in emerging markets. Prior to that, he was the Director for Strategic Communications at the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, a position he took up at the start of 2012. Eric also led the Global Media Program at the World Bank Institute (WBI) and, in that capacity, launched the IMAGE (Independent Media for Accountability, Governance and Empowerment) capacity building program and Network to create a crop of development journalists in the Bank’s client countries.
Our vision
The vision of APBF is to support the transformation of Africa’s national radio and television broadcasting corporations into digital content publishers that are committed to enlightening hundreds of millions of Africans through the medium of radio and television entertainment. Across the globe, traditional media and content industries have been heavily hit by the transformative power of a shift to new digital media technologies. This has led to a drastic change in the manner in which we produce, store, distribute and consume television. Consequently, the means by which content was previously created and packaged has now changed.
Digital content publishing, the process via which traditional media data and/or creative ideas is converted through digital manipulation to digital data in order to develop different usages, has become the new norm. APBF’s major focus is to provide an efficient and viable means by which a sound public service-focused African digital content publishing industry is generated. APBF works hand-in-hand with ABN Holdings Ltd (ABN), a commercial television content hub and distribution networking agency operating in sub Saharan Africa. ABN has a strong and growing brand presence across sub-Saharan Africa and is able to provide an effective delivery platform for APBF and assist the latter in meeting its broadcasting and information dissemination objectives.
Our goals
APBF’s mission is underpinned by five distinct goals. Each of which is designed to proactively support sub-Saharan Africa’s social and economic transformation. These, in order of priority, are as follows:
The creation of a bouquet of public-service oriented, news and education focused free-to-air radio and freeview television channels for multi-platform distribution.
The establishment a digital compliance and industry capacity building initiative in cooperation with key policy decision-makers and governmental regulatory bodies. The goal is to ensure a full pan-African digital switchover by 2020.
Facilitate the structured creation of an African Digital Media Fund to support Africa’s burgeoning media entrepreneurs. One outcome would be the effective commercial translation of the “Greenfield” potential of sub-Saharan Africa’s content production and television industries into multi-billion dollar sectors.
The stimulation of incremental growth of radio and television advertising spend across sub-Saharan Africa. The goal of APBF is to facilitate the creation of a credible audience measurement system and market research infrastructure.
The development of a vibrant, social media forum targeting hundreds of millions Africa’s youth. The goal of APBF is to generate a dynamic ideas incubator in order to stimulate continuing growth enhancing discussions focusing on relevant political, cultural and, economic issues.
Our values
APBF has adopted an ownership model that safeguards its value proposition as an objective public service content generation and distribution entity. Accordingly, APBF has established a Board of Trustees that leads a legal framework and governance structure, which ensures that financial returns accrued from the activities of APBF are re-invested in its operations. The goal is to secure the financial security of APBF in perpetuity, while building a strong editorially independent vehicle that promotes objective television, the freedom to innovate and the capacity to promote growth generating and nation building ideas. As such, APBF will be able to apply all of its income to sustain a public service information dissemination system that is free from commercial or political interference, and which upholds the values laid down by its Founding Board of Trustees.
APBF is a UK registered limited by Guarantee Company and, in the USA, it has been established as a tax-exempt 501 (c) (3) not-for profit company. APBF has established a network of industry partners across sub-Saharan Africa and in Europe, North America and Asia. It is actively developing a vast global network of professional associates that are committed to the growth of Africa’s television industry.
Our plan
APBF has identified three key foundation setting pillars that will inspire the realisation of a sound public service focused digital ecosystem:
(1) A Knowledge Share Point (KSP), a centralised online knowledge hub, with the intent to facilitate the accelerated convergence of Africa’s traditional radio and television broadcasting networks and mobile network operators into a seamless multi-platform content distribution ecosystem.
(2) A Digital Networking Hub that will ensue in the creation of a systemic pan-African framework to support the generation, storage and monetization of published digital content “Made by Africans for Africans”.
(3) A Creative Think Tank comprising experienced and proven digital content creation and marketing experts, to design an innovative policy framework and a cultural enterprises proposal. APBF’s intent is to proactively facilitate the launch of a thriving, Africa-wide digital content publishing industry.
The goal of APBF is to facilitate the development of an effective public service digital radio and television broadcasting system on the continent of Africa.
George Twumasi ia graduate of the National Film and Television Institute in Ghana, is a creative visionary who is actively focused on the creation and design of a sound intellectual framework by, which a commercially viable public service news and entertainment African television broadcasting network can be established via www.abnafrica.tv. The network would comprise a bouquet of original African free-to-air television and low-cost pay-tv channels with the goal to enlighten hundreds of millions of African households through socially engineered infotainment and edutainment learning. George is also working towards the launch of www.abicoos.com, an African infotainment and edutainment inspired digital mobile lifestyle platform. Including animated African folklore and third-party, user generated content applications, the goal is to reach 400 million smartphones and mobile tablets on the continent of Africa by 2025 via www.abicoos.com
Emmanuel K. Akyeampong is the President of the African Public Broadcasting Foundation in the US and an Executive Board Director of the African Public Broadcasting Foundation in the UK. He is the Ellen Gurney Professor of History and of African and African American Studies and; Oppenheimer Faculty Director of the Harvard University Center for African Studies. Emmanuel is also a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (FGA), and a Corresponding Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (UK). He is also a co-founder and director of the International Institute for the Advanced Study of Cultures, Institutions and Economic Enterprise (IIAS: www.interias.org.gh) based in Accra, Ghana. He previously served as chair of the Committee on African Studies at Harvard from July 2002 to June 2006.
Mary Goodyear has a long and remarkable professional track record as an analytic market researcher with a strong passion for African cultures. She specialised in international consultancy for many multinational companies and institutions, including the BBC and Diageo and is well-travelled across the West African region and the Caribbean. Mary, who graduated as a psychologist from the University College of London in 1965, brings a wealth of experience to APBF team in the understanding of sub-Saharan African cultures and it’s rich, underlying value systems.
Robert Soteriou has been actively involved in the development of APBF in both the UK and in the USA. Robert is a professionally qualified chartered accountant who worked for Price-Waterhouse, before becoming senior partner of his own firm, which he has run for more than 30 years. Robert is responsible for the practical implementation of the goals of APBF, which its management executive will drive on a day-to-day basis.
Simon Spanswick and his team at the AIB have agreed to provide APBF with interim management services in order to ensure a successful launch. The goal is to establish APBF as a reputable African public service focused digital content publishing and multi-platform broadcast enabling organisation. Simon is a founder director of the AIB. His career spans both public and commercial sectors and for many years he has been closely involved in digital broadcasting.
Phil Molefe is APBF’s Sub-Saharan African Television Industry Relations Adviser. His major role is to assure public sector broadcasters about the value of an efficiently structured public service focusing on digital content publishing and the creation of Regional Editorial Boards, which APBF will spearhead as Africa transitions to digital terrestrial television. Phil has been a journalist for over 30 years, working for several South African publications, including SASPU National, Weekly Mail and The Star. Phil Molefe is the current Chairperson of South Africa’s National Film and Video Foundation (www.nfvf.co.za)
Sal Souza, an Industrial Designer who speaks 9 languages (English – Dutch – Konkani – Vlaams), an expert New Media / User Xperience programmer, and multi-disciplinary project management (fintech, medtech, edutech, VR, AR and ecosystems). Sal is a skilled communicator, able to maintain cultural sensitivity, establish rapport with cross-disciplinary groups and promote team cohesiveness. Sal Souza is the managing partner for ABN’s new catalogue of digital content, multimedia, games, audio visual content and smart tools. He is the founder of Ofamfa®, Cineformat® and AntuBOX®.
Chris Read, a graduate of University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, is a TMT focused Conference Manager at Knect 365. He is responsible for bringing together and connecting Africa’s public service broadcasting media’s community, at senior level, together with the right players in technology, telecommunications and media investment, to accelerate the growth of a new digital ecosystem with less risk.
Gillian Rose is APBF’s Content Strategy and International Television Industry Relationships Adviser. She is Senior Vice President, US Sales and Acquisitions, with Sky Vision, part of European media company Sky, based in New York. Prior to this she was Managing Director of PBS Distribution, a company owned jointly by PBS and WGBH Boston.and before that Head of Distribution for WNET, New York’s flagship PBS station, and executive-in-charge of WNET’s lifestyle programming. She is a two-term Chair of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) New York and former Co-Chair of the International Emmy Awards Committee. She has a Masters Degree in Communication for Development and is also President/Founder of The Rosemary Pencil Foundation, a non-profit that works in Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia.
Before taking up his position at AMI, Eric Chinje served as Senior Advisor at the KRL International LLC, a Washington-based consultancy specializing in emerging markets. Prior to that, he was the Director for Strategic Communications at the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, a position he took up at the start of 2012. Eric also led the Global Media Program at the World Bank Institute (WBI) and, in that capacity, launched the IMAGE (Independent Media for Accountability, Governance and Empowerment) capacity building program and Network to create a crop of development journalists in the Bank’s client countries.