MTN Project Fame-Jeffery Ufedor Surprising Win

Budding singer, Jeffrey Ufedo Akor  weekend emerged winner of the MTN Project Fame West Africa Season 8, smiling home with star prize of N5million, a brand new, fully loaded SUV and a recording contract worth millions of Naira. It has been a completely exciting season with weeks of hard-work and dedication.

Jeff

It started with auditions in several cities in West Africa, and translated into eight weeks of fun, tension and scintillating performances for the 16 contestants that made it into the Academy.

For the six finalists that made it to the finals (Ada, Arewa, Anderson, Deinde, Jeff, and Pearl), things will never be the same again as they have indeed gone through a beneficial and life-altering eight weeks in the Academy.

Grand Finale nights like this have birthed the likes of Iyanya, Mike, Chidinma, Monica, Ayoola, Olawale and Geoffrey. And with only one of these six to join the league of extraordinary superstars, the question on everyone’s mind was, who will it be?

But before it got to that, the show kicked off on a  promising note as the six finalists stepped onto the stage in their monochrome outfits and delivered a melodious, yet emotional group song titled ‘Pray For Me’ by Dare Art Alade.

The rest of the night turned out to be an exciting journey with great entertainment lined up in form of collabos. Yes, the six finalists had been paired up with some A-list artistes to produce amazing remixed versions of their songs, and so each team stepped on stage and brought nothing but pure joy as they sang, danced and glowed.

First to perform were Jeff and energetic Yemi Alade doing ‘K.I.S.S.I.N.G’ remix. Followed by Pearl and Chidinma who gracefully performed ‘Kedike’ remix. Deinde and Iyanya got everyone dancing with ‘Mr Oreo’ remix.  Anderson and Praiz with their vocal dexterities delivered ‘Rich and Famous’ remix. While Arewa and 9ice paired up for the remix of the evergreen ‘Gongo Aso’.

Ada and Sound Sultan closed this round of entertainment with their creative rendition of ‘MotherLand’ remix. Amazingly, these collaborations are now available as caller ring back tunes. It was then time to get down to the business of the day. The moment of truth as many calls it, often characterized by a pin-drop silence.

With the audience eyes wide open, gasping heartbeats and trembling feet, the hosts of the show –Joseph Benjamin and Bolanle Olukanni took turns to announce the winner and runners-up of season eight.  Ada Tosanwumi, third runner-up. She went home with a cash prize of two million naira while   Anderson Amos emerged second runner-up.

He walked away with two million naira and a brand new saloon car. Pearl Awa-Agwu, first runner-up. She earned three million naira and a brand new saloon car.

With scores of spectacular performances and several millions of votes; the winner of MTN Project Fame Season eight is Jeffrey Ufedo Akor. He carted away five million naira, a brand new, fully loaded SUV and a recording contract worth millions of Naira. The sixth and fifth positions will also be rewarded with five hundred thousand naira and one million naira respectively.

 

MTN gets N34bn digital pay-TV licence

 

Telecommunications firm, MTN, has acquired a N34bn licence to provide digital pay television broadcasting services in Nigeria.

The National Broadcasting Commission confirmed this on Wednesday, saying that it approved for MTN Nigeria part of the country’s 700MHz broadcasting spectrum solely for the purpose.

The NBC spoke against the backdrop of allegations that it had sold the spectrum to MTN without recourse to transparency or the Nigerian Communications Commission, the telecommunications industry regulator that is empowered to sell such spectrum through a transparent auction.

The companies, which made the allegations, had insisted that the spectrum in question must be returned to the NCC as the rightful custodian.

The NBC, however, dismissed the allegations, saying it was not a telecoms spectrum, but a broadcasting spectrum.

The Director-General, NBC, Mr. Emeka Mba, said, “I am pleased to inform you that we have successfully licensed MTN Nigeria to use a part of the 700MHz to provide digital pay-TV broadcasting services. We have thus raised N34bn, slightly less than 50 per cent of our budget.

“I am pleased to inform you, also, that through this singular move, Nigeria has once again pointed the way to other African countries struggling with the effort of finding financing for their own digital switchover programmes.

“It may be necessary to clarify that the use of the band, 470 – 862MHz, solely for UHF television broadcasting service on a primary basis in Nigeria predates both the NBC and NCC.

“As a matter of fact, most administrations in the International Telecommunications Union region 1 use the entire 470 – 862 MHz for UHF television broadcasting prior to ITU WRC-2007 conference.”

Mba said that in 2006, the ITU planned the entire 470 – 862MHz frequency band for digital UHF television broadcasting for the region 1, to which the Nigerian administration belonged.

He stated that the planning of the 470 – 862MHz frequency band for digital UHF television was referred to in the ITU circle as GE-06 plan, saying, “And after the signing of the agreements resulting from this plan, it is now referred to as the GE-06 agreement.”

The NBC director-general said the spectrum was sold to enable Nigeria to meet the June 17, 2015 deadline set by the ITU of transiting to digital terrestrial broadcasting.

He said despite that the announcement was in 2006 by ITU, it was not until June 17, 2012 that the White Paper giving direction to the process came out.