Africa's first paid fellowship for content creators

29 Aug 2016

NEW YORK, USA - aKoma Media, a content platform and storytelling company focused on Africa, has launched the inaugural session of Amplify, a media and content creation program in partnership with The MasterCard Foundation.

Africa's first paid fellowship for content creators

Amplify's mission is to develop a fellowship of young, dynamic multimedia content creators who will craft compelling stories about Africa. The Fellows will be immersed in a six-month holistic and individualised instruction program that starts to fill a much-needed media and storytelling talent pipeline in Africa, providing access to job opportunities. Fellows will receive a monthly stipend and digital hardware as part of their program benefits.

aKoma CEO and co-founder, Zain Verjee is spearheading Amplify which will launch in Kigali, Rwanda; Lagos, Nigeria; and Nairobi, Kenya, in September 2016. "Amplify is a great platform to find and nurture talented Africans who want to create amazing content, acquire and develop creation skills, and distribute their work globally."

The former CNN anchor adds that aKoma sees Amplify as an added weapon to "develop an exclusive network of multimedia storytellers who will be able to tell universal stories about Africa, and armed with the skills to work for major media outlets, freelance, or start their own storytelling shops".

For the inaugural class of Amplify Fellows, aKoma is seeking applications from talented individuals and creators in the written, photo and video content spaces. The 2016 program will be in Nairobi, Lagos and Kigali, so individuals in those cities are encouraged to apply. aKoma is looking for the most committed candidates who are up for a fun but challenging experience. The Fellowship selection process will be rigorous, and a total of only twenty-five Fellows will be chosen.

Founded by CNN alumni Zain Verjee and Chidi Afulezi, aKoma is an open source content platform and storytelling community where a combination of user generated and original content about Africa and its diaspora are created, published and shared with the world.

With a mission of building Africa's content management system (CMS), the media company was developed with the long-term vision to become the centre of a thriving ecosystem of Africa focused content and media services such as photo galleries, short, mid and long-form video, branded content, blogging tools and others, powered by aKoma's modern media stack that allows creators to build innovative creative products.

To become an Amplify Fellow, go to aKomanet.com and begin the application process.

Source: African Media Agency.