The initiatives include the Google for Startups Accelerator Africa: Women Founders Cohort, the Hustle Academy for Women-Led SMEs, and a social media series celebrating inspiring women in Africa’s technology sector.

The initiatives, according to the company, are in honor of International Women’s Day.

Commenting on the initiatives, Head of Startup Ecosystem, Africa, Folarin Aiayegbusi, said, “We are thrilled to announce the selected startups for the inaugural class of our Google for Startups Accelerator Africa: Women Founders Cohort.

The agreements were made at a meeting between the representatives of Meta and Google and the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

The Federal Government on Friday in Abuja sealed agreements with tech giants, Meta and Google on the protection of the integrity of the forthcoming general elections.

The agreements were reached at a meeting between the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed and representatives of Meta and Google.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Meta is the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp while Google owns YouTube, G-mail and Google Search.

At the meeting which was at the instance of the minister, the tech giants agreed to comply with four demands by the federal government.

The tech giants agreed to work with the government in flagging and bringing down posts that constituted fake news and disinformation in their platforms.

They also agreed to work with the security agencies to bring down posts capable of inciting violence before, during and after the elections.

It was also agreed that election results not originating from official sources, should be flagged as unverified by the tech giants’ platforms.

They also agreed to make posts from official channels, like the Ministry of Information and Culture, Independent National Electoral Commission, National Orientation Agency, etc., prominent on their platforms.

Earlier, the minister underscored the importance of the elections to the country and the assurance by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), to the nation and the international community on a free, fair, credible and peaceful polls.

He also noted that the use of social media was a critical factor in the national elections of countries, including Nigeria with a predominantly youthful population.

Mohammed, however, expressed concern that 22 days before the elections, there has been a noticeable increase in the use of fake news and disinformation on social media platforms.

He said the purveyors of fake news and disinformation were those bent on hindering the success of the elections and throwing the nation into crisis.

The minister said: “There has been a gross abuse of social media platforms to purvey fake news and disinformation ahead of the elections.

“These unscrupulous people are resorting to the use of parody accounts, cloning of reputable media platforms and the use of deep fakes to carry out their nefarious activities.

“For example, candidates’ campaign speeches are doctored to portray them in bad light, video clips and pictures of campaign rallies are tampered with to make them look poorly attended.

“Fake or unscientific opinion polls are concocted, while threats of violence in certain parts of the country are exaggerated.

“All of these are then circulated via social media to a wide audience, with the aim of making their target candidates look bad, influencing public perception or even suppressing votes in certain areas.

“We have therefore invited you, platform owners, here so we can work together to reduce these negative tendencies before, during and after the forthcoming elections.”

The Head, Public Policy (Anglophone West Africa) at Meta, Adaora Ikenze, thanked the minister for initiating the meeting and assured that the requests by the federal government would be heeded.

She said that Meta had set up the Election Protection Operating Centre which worked 24 hours with relevant stakeholders to ensure the integrity of the polls.

Ikenze added that they partnered with Independent National Electoral Commission and Civil Society Groups, to provide information on the polls and as well engaged facts checkers to flag unwholesome and fake content.

Speaking in the same vein, the Policy and Government Affairs Lead at Google Dawn Dimowo, assured that they would follow up with the government team, so that they could flag any content escalated to be problematic.

Dimowo said they had a process to direct users of their platforms to authentic election result channels.

She assured that any unverified sources that post the results of the elections would be brought down.

According to Google, the celebration of jollof rice, a dish local to countries in West Africa, was to appreciate farmers who plant and reap rice so that the meal can be prepared.

For the doodle, Nigerian content creator and visual artist, Haneefah Adam, created a stop-motion animation video showing the preparation of Jollof rice.

The video which has a background music by a Senegalese jazz artist, Hervé Samb, showed a step by step process to making the dish as well as the ingredients used in making it.

Talking about the dish, Adam said, “This is a celebration of culture—not just my culture, but of everyone who recognises food as a conduit. The diversity of how we  approach food is really interesting—like how the preparation of Jollof is different in Nigeria vs. Senegal (they even have different names). This just goes to show the richness and beauty of our collective culture as a continent.”

Google also noted the friendly rivalry between Nigeria and Ghana on which country prepared the best jollof rice.

It noted, “Nigerians and Ghanaians are particularly competitive over who makes the best jollof — and for good reason. There are distinct differences between the two cooking styles. “For example, Nigerians use long-grain rice that absorbs more spices, while Ghanaians use basmati rice with a more aromatic flavor.”

The Head, Communication, West Africa and sub-Saharan Africa, Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade said this in a statement on Thursday in Lagos.

Kola-Ogunlade said that the new features leveraging machine learning would help people gather information in new ways.

He highlighted the six new features as multi-search, multi-search near me, translation in the blink of an eye, Google for iOS updates, even faster ways to find what you are looking for and new ways to explore information.

Kola-Ogunlade disclosed that people use lenses to answer over eight billion questions monthly.

He noted that Google introduced multi-search, a major milestone, to help people search for information earlier this year.

“With multi-search, you can take a picture or use a screenshot and then add text to it — similar to the way you might naturally point at something and ask a question about it.

“Multisearch is available in English globally, and will now be rolling out in 70 languages in the next few months.

“Multisearch near me allows you to take a screenshot or a photo of an item, and then find it nearby.

“So, if you have a hankering for your favourite local dish, all you need to do is screenshot it, and Google will connect you with nearby restaurants serving it,” he said.

According to him, in translation, in the blink of an eye, one of the most powerful aspects of visual understanding, is its ability to break down language barriers.

“Google has gone beyond translating text to translating pictures – with Google translating text in images over one billion times monthly in more than 100 languages,” Kola-Ogunlade said.

He said with major advancements in machine learning, Google is now able to blend translated text into complex images.

“Google has also optimised their machine learning models to do all this in just 100 milliseconds — shorter than the blink of an eye,” Kola-Ogunlade added.

He said that this uses generative adversarial networks (GAN models) which power the technology behind the Magic Eraser on Pixel.

“Google is working to make it possible to ask questions with fewer words- or even none at all and still help you find what you are looking for.

“For those who do not know exactly what they are looking for until they see it, Google will help you to specify your question.

“Google is reinventing the way it displays search results to better reflect the ways people explore topics to see the most relevant content,” Kola-Ogunlade said.

The programme, which is called Google Black Founders Fund (BFF) for startups in Africa, is the second phase of the global tech giant’s funding for African startups.

Folarin Aiyegbusi, Google’s Head of Startup Ecosystem, Sub Sahara Africa, said in a statement that the startups joining the programme would receive a total of $4m in funding.

Aiyegbusi said that the startups would also receive support to enable them to scale up their ongoing work.

He said that the programme reinforced Google’s commitment to empowering entrepreneurs and startups in the region as a vital prerequisite to driving employment and growth on the continent.

“Africa is a diverse continent with massive opportunities, but the continent is faced with the challenge of limited diversity in venture capital funding flow.

“We hope that the Black Founders Fund programme will be able to bridge the gap of disproportionate funding between expat startups over local and black-led companies.

“Each of the selected startups would receive support in the form of a six-month training programme that includes access to a network of mentors to assist in tackling  challenges,’’ Aiyegbusi said.

According to him, the startups will also be part of tailored workshops, support networks  and community building sessions.

Aiyegbusi said that the 60 grantees would also get non-dilutive awards of  between $50,000 and $100,000 and up to $200,000 in Google Cloud credit.

He said that grantees, made up of 50 per cent  women-led businesses, hailed from Botswana,  Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda.

According to Aiyegbusi, the startups  specialised in sectors such as fintech, healthcare, e-commerce, logistics, agtech, education, hospitality and smart cities.

He listed the top five countries with the most startups selected for the programme as Nigeria with 23 grantees, Kenya with 12 grantees, and Rwanda with six grantees.

Aiyegbusi  said that South Africa had five grantees and Uganda had four grantees.

According to him, Botswana and Senegal have one selected startup each,  Cameroon and Ghana both have three grantees each while Ethiopia has two selected grantees.

Aiyegbusi said that the Google for Startups programme, which was launched in April 2012, had created over 4,600 jobs and raised more than $290 million dollars in funding.

He added that the programme would introduce the grantees in Africa  to Google’s products, connections, and best practices.

Aiyegbusi said that it would help the founders to level the playing field as they built better products and services that added value to the African economy.

According to him, funding for the programme will be distributed through Google’s implementation partner, CcHUB.

Aiyegbusi said that the equity-free cash assistance to startups would enable the startups to take care of immediate needs such as paying staff, funding inventory, and maintaining software licences.

He explained that this was to help the grantees buffer the cost of taking on debt in the early stages of their businesses, as many of them had no steady revenue streams yet.

Aiyegbusi said that funding Black Founders in Africa fueled generational and systemic change.

These conditions are stated in the recently released Code of Practice for Interactive Computer Service Platforms/Internet Intermediaries (online platforms).

The National Information Technology Development Agency made this know in a statement on Monday.

The statement read in part, “NITDA wishes to present to the public a Code of Practice for Interactive Computer Service Platforms/Internet Intermediaries for future review and input.”

The Code of Practice was developed by NITDA alongside the Nigerian Communications Commission and National Broadcasting Commission,with input from platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Google, and Tik Tok.

One of such conditions in the Code of Practice is that each online platform is required to have a country representative, who will interface with the Nigerian authorities.

This means that Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Google, Tik Tok and other interactive online platforms are required to have country representatives.

Other conditions include registering with the Corporate Affairs Commission as a legal entity, complying with tax obligations, and abide by regulatory and legal demands.

The Code of Practice is aimed at safeguarding the fundamental human rights of Nigerians and non-Nigerians living in Nigeria, and regulating interactions on online platforms.

The new centre will help to create transformative products and services for people in Africa and around the world and will be hiring visionary engineers, product managers, UX designers and researchers to lay the foundation for significant growth in the coming years.

The centre is looking for talented, creative people who can help solve difficult and important technical challenges, such as improving the smartphone experience for people in Africa, or building a more reliable internet infrastructure.

Google’s VP for Products, Suzanne Frey, who made the announcement during a round table with journalists from Sub-Saharan Africa, said “Google’s mission in Africa is to make the Internet helpful to Africans and partner with African governments, policymakers, educators, entrepreneurs and businesses to shape the next wave of innovation in Africa. Today I am excited to welcome all Africans passionate about improving the digital experience of African users by building better products to apply for the open roles at our first product development centre in Africa.”

Also speaking during the announcement, the Managing Director, Google Africa, Nitin Gajria added that ‘’there are 300M internet users in Africa who are young, mobile-first and have similar patterns to mobile youth globally. By 2030, Africa will have 800M internet users and a third of the world’s under-35 population. The potential for Africa to become a leading digital economy is right on the horizon and Google is committed to accelerating Africa’s digital transformation through human capital and enabling “African-led solutions to African and global problems” through better products.”

Last October at a Google for Africa event, the CEO, Sundar Pichai, announced a plan to invest $1billion over the next 5 years to support Africa’s digital transformation.

This investment focuses on enabling fast, affordable internet access for more Africans, building helpful products, supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses and helping nonprofits to improve lives across Africa. In 2018 Google also opened an AI research centre in Accra, Ghana to help drive useful innovations.

The new product development centre is a continuation of that commitment and will be working on building for Africa and the world.

All the roles announced today about building for Africa and the world can be viewed at careers.google.com site.

Kwali was an educator, ceramicist, glassworker, and potter, who helped introduce the international community to the beauty of Nigerian art through intricately decorated earthenware designs.

She learnt pottery in her childhood and later developed her own style which included fabricating everyday containers ornamented with animal iconography

Kwali’s works were showcased as masterful decorations in the homes of the wealthy and even palaces.

In 1950, Michael Cardew, founder of Abuja’s first potter training centre, discovered her talent after seeing her work at a royal palace.

Kwali became the first Nigerian woman to train in advanced pottery techniques, fusing her traditional style with innovative methods to craft a hybrid collection of pottery.

She achieved international acclaim in the 60s following exhibitions across Europe and the Americas.

Kwali later became a university lecturer and received a doctorate from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in 1977.

In 1963 she was awarded the Member of the Order of the British Empire. In honour of her contributions to academia, she received the Nigerian National Order of Merit Award in 1980 and was also awarded the national honour of the Officer of the Order of the Niger in 1981.

Kwali remains the first and only woman to feature on a Nigerian Naira note, N20.

Google’s doodle commemorates the exhibition of Kwali’s work at the Skoto Gallery in New York, on March 16, 2017.

The new policy for Google advertisers, publishers and YouTube creators will prohibit the platforms from helping people make money from content that “contradicts well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change.”

That includes online content referring to climate change as a hoax or a scam, or denying the world’s temperature is rising and that human activity is contributing to the problem, Google said in a post.

Google said “Advertisers simply don’t want their ads to appear next to this content, and publishers and creators don’t want ads promoting these claims to appear on their pages or videos. Google’s important decision to demonetize climate misinformation could turn the tide on the climate denial economy,” said NGO Avaaz campaign director Fadi Quran. For years, climate misinformers have confused public opinion and obstructed urgent political action on climate change, and YouTube has been one of their weapons of choice.”

Quran urged other online platforms to follow Google’s lead and stop funnelling money to those peddling debunked denials of climate change.

Social networking colossus Facebook, which is Google’s biggest competitor in the digital advertising market, touts efforts to curb climate misinformation at its platform but has no such ad ban in place.

Social media platforms are regularly accused of promoting content that provokes strong emotional responses in order to keep users engaged so the platforms can make more money made from ads, even if the content can cause harm.

This was according to the Chief Executive Officer of Google, Sundar Pichai, during the Google for Africa virtual event on Wednesday.

Pichai said the billion-dollar investment, which will run for five years, is geared towards improving a range of initiatives in Africa and funding startups.

Pichai said, “We’ve made huge strides together over the past decade – but there’s more work to do to make the internet accessible, affordable, and useful for every African.

“Today I’m excited to reaffirm our commitment to the continent through an investment of $1B over five years to support Africa’s digital transformation to cover a range of initiatives from improved connectivity to investment in startups.”

Managing Director for Google in Africa, Nitin Gajria, stated that African developers and startup founders are capable of solving Africa’s biggest problems, hence the need for investment.

Gajria said, “I am so inspired by the innovative African tech startup scene. In the last year, we have seen more investment rounds into tech startups than ever before.

“I am of the firm belief that no one is better placed to solve Africa’s biggest problems than Africa’s young developers and startup founders. We look forward to deepening our partnership with, and support for, Africa’s innovators and entrepreneurs.”