Meet "Daniel Anidugbe" popularly known as Kizz Daniel - Nigerian Award Winning Singer and Songwriter.

Oluwatobiloba Daniel Anidugbe, professionally known as Kizz Daniel is a Nigerian singer and songwriter. He was born on May 1, 1994 in Abeokuta Ogun State, Nigeria to the family of Kola Anidugbe, a popular artist and art-educator in Ogun state. He attended Abeokuta Grammar School then proceeded to Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), where he studied Water Resources Management and Agrometeorology (Water Engineering). He graduated in 2013, and started his music career fully.

He is best known for his singles "Woju" and "Yeba". He went by the stage name Kiss Daniel prior to changing it in May 2018. He signed a record deal with G-Worldwide Entertainment in 2013, but left the label following a publicized contract dispute and court case. He founded the Fly Boy Inc record label in November 2017. In 2018 he signed in new acts – Ademola Adetungase and Philip Ahaiwe Chukwuja professionally known as Demmie Vee and Philkeyz respectively.

Daniel started developing interest in music at age 11 and in 2013, he started music professionally after graduating from higher institution. It was the time he met the G-Worldwide Entertainment CEO, Emperor Geezy, who then signed him under his label. Under G-Worldwide Entertainment label, Kizz Daniel released his debut single titled shoye on May 1, 2014. It was produced by Beatburx and directed by MEX. Then, on Sept. 1, 2014, he produced his sophomore single- woju.

Kizz Daniel released his second single woju in Sept. 2014 after shoye. Woju became a hit and brought him to limelight. It was produced by DJ Coublon, released by G-Worldwide and the video was directed by Adasa Cookey in Lagos. Woju debuted on MTV Base Naija Top Ten for eleven weeks and six weeks at the number one position. Later on, he recorded and released a remix version of the song woju. This time, he featured Davido and Tiwa Savage. The remix debuted at number 1 and 2 on the MTV Base Official Naija Top 10. It was the first time an original song and the remix version will debut at the first and second positions on the chart.

Kizz Daniel released his debut studio album, (New Era) on May 14, 2016 under the G-Worldwide Entertainment. The album contains four hit singles; Woju (2014), Laye (2015), Good Times (2015) and Mama (2016). Also, it was produced by DJ Coublon, Young John, Beatburx, Jay Sleek, Masterkraft, and Kimzbeatz. In June 2016, the album debuted at number 8 on the US Billboard World Album Chart. New Era is a mixture of hip pop and afro pop and Sugarboy was the only guest that featured in this album.

Kizz Daniel released his sophomore album on Nov. 30, 2018 under his label, Flyboy Inc. He featured artist like Davido, Philkeyz, Diplo, Nasty C, Diamond Platnumz, Sarkodie and Wretch 32. The album is centered around his humble beginning and his journey to stardom. Also, the album have 20 track listings and some of the songs on the track include; One Ticket ft Davido, Poko and Maye.

“I love music. I want to listen. I want to learn. I experiment with sounds. I listen to all kinds of music; Konto sound to Afrobeat. From the likes of Fela Kuti, Plantashun Boiz, Danfo drivers, Zulezu and Afropop.”

"I have been able to merge Afro soul, Afrobeat and hip hop to create my own genre of music. We are Africans, we are cultural people. Afrobeat is like the African spirit. It’s really really personal to Africans."

“I use comedy to get away from the pressure of the industry. I use comedy so people can see that this guy isn’t that uptight. He’s actually a free guy.”

“The title of the first song I ever wrote was 'Kudi'. It was about my first relationship. We ended up breaking up so I wrote a song for her.”

“It took three months before ‘Woju’ became a hit song. My boss was all positive and energetic. He said this is the song, this is the hit song."

"‘Woju’ was a high-life tune and ‘Laye’ was more like a Makossa tune. Social media went wild, saying Kiss Daniel is doing the same sound and everything. So I went back to the studio and then created ‘Raba,’ which was more like the high-life sound. So it was totally different.”

"I think the most important for me when it comes to music is touching lives."

Meet "Florence Chikezie" - The Founder/CEO of ReDahlia and Entrepreneurs.ng

Florence Chikezie is an award winning entrepreneur and she is the founder/CEO of Nigeria’s fast rising enterprise ReDahlia, a brand that houses ReDahlia Workspaces, Entrepreneurs.ng and The Business Clinic. She was born in Abia State, Nigeria.

She graduated from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka with a first class in Management. Due to her pursuit and thirst for excellence, she was accepted into Hult International Business School where her show of distinction continued as she bagged a Master's degree in International business from Hult International Business School, London.

Florence is the Chief Executive Officer of Entrepreneurs.ng, a business hub for Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurship in Nigeria. The company is into organization of monthly meetings and programs such as monthly clinics in a bid to help starting and growing businesses develop with proper structures. She believes the solution to the economic problems faced by Nigeria and other countries in the world at large lies in the confines of entrepreneurship. The Hult International Business School graduate has strong belief that making provisions for young entrepreneurs will positively affect the economy.

Among her blooming business projects is ReDahlia Workspaces. It is a business enterprise which functions as both a working space and a business consulting firm that offers such top-notch services as business Consultation, virtual offices, etc. at very moderate prices. Other than these they also offer services in registering and incorporating businesses.

Florence is a Strategy Consultant, Coach, Trainer, Author, Editor and Investor.

Meet "Asisat Lamina Oshoala" - A Nigerian Female Professional Footballer.

Asisat Lamina Oshoala is a Nigerian professional football / soccer striker who plays for Spanish side FC Barcelona Femení in the Primera División and captains the Nigerian national team. She was born into a Muslim family on the 9th of October, 1994 in the Ikorodu suburb of Lagos State. Despite being born and bred in Ikorodu, she started her basic football in Mushin, and this was in total defiance to the stand of her parents. Considering her achievements so far in her career, it’s safe to say that the parents who refused to let Asisat play soccer, would now be proud a parents of a football star.

Asisat had her primary school education at Air Force Primary School in Victoria Island before she moved to Aunty Ayo International School in Ikoyi, also in Lagos for her secondary school education, and graduated in 2009. Right after her Secondary school education, she started her career at Nigerian Lower Division side FC Robo from 2009 to 2013 before moving to Rivers Angels FC.

                                 

At Rivers Angels, Asisat broke into limelight when she represented Nigeria at the 2014 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Canada. She emerged as the top scorer with seven goals and was named the Player of the Tournament. Her performance helped Nigeria to finish the tournament as the runner-up. After her outstanding performance in Canada, she was named best player and second top goalscorer with the Super Falcons team who won the 2014 African Women’s Championship.

On 23rd of January 2015, Asisat joined Liverpool in England's Women's Super League. The club's manager, Matt Beard, called her "one of the best young players in the world". Despite missing two months of the 2015 season with a knee injury, she scored three goals in the nine games in which she played as defending champions. Liverpool reported that a transfer bid from Arsenal had activated the release clause in Asisat's contract and that she was discussing personal terms with the London club.

In March 2016, Asisat signed with Arsenal. Arsenal manager, Pedro Losa said of her signing, "Asisat is a fantastic talent and will be a great addition to our squad. She is quick, with excellent feet and has proven she can score goals so it's very positive she has decided to join us." She helped Arsenal win the 2016 FA Women's Cup Final on 14 May. 

Asisat signed with Chinese club Dailan on February 10th, 2017. During the 2017 season, she scored 12 goals helping Dalian Quanjian win the league championship. She was awarded the league's Golden Boot award for most goals scored. The same year, she scored four goals during the 2017 Women's Super Cup and helped the club defeat Shanghai 5-3 to win the championship. In October 2018, she helped the club win the league championship for the second consecutive year.

On 31st of January 2019, Spanish club FC Barcelona Femení signed Asisat on a loan deal until the end of the season. On May 31, 2019, Barcelona announced her full transfer to the club and extension until 2022. She scored seven goals in her seven appearances for the club during the 2018-19 season. She scored Barcelona's only goal in a 4–1 defeat to Lyon in the 2019 UEFA Women's Champions League Final. She was the first African (and Nigerian) to score in a Champions League Final. She became the first African woman to win the UEFA Champions League, after coming on in the 71st minute of the finals with Barcelona defeating Chelsea 4–0.

Asisat is a good example for aspiring female footballers. With the support of the Lagos state government, she set up the Asisat Oshoala Foundation to help youngsters seek after their football dream and give them the necessary chance she never had.

You can check her on her Instagram account @asisat_oshoala

Meet "Etop Ikpe" - The CEO of Autocheck and Former CEO of Car45

Etop Ikpe is the CEO of Autocheck which he founded in 2020. He was the founder and CEO of Car45 and previously the commercial director of Konga, one of Nigeria’s largest e-commerce platforms, and also formerly the CEO and co-MD of DealDey.

He is from Akwa Ibom State, though he was born and raised in Lagos. His father was an accountant, while my mum was a civil servant. He is the third of four children with two elder sisters and a younger brother.

Etop took his first shot at entrepreneurship as a student, when he co-founded clickmobile; an IT solution for companies to build business apps based on htmls. ClickMobile was intended to aid field users to access critical information, view their tasks, shifts, report their attendance and access customer information among others. The idea occurred to him at the time he was working as the manager of a cinema in Benin city. His lecture schedules usually left his Fridays free, so he spent his weekends in Benin working. As a manager of the cinema, Etop reasoned that there had to be a way of getting the organization to function seamlessly.

3stitches is a business of love for Etop which he would always remember fondly because it was instrumental to him meeting his wife. As a cloth dealer, Etop’s then-to-be-wife always had a challenge – debtors. The pileup of debtors made it very difficult for her to effectively run her business. So together with Etop, they came up with 3Stitches, an online platform that would allow people shop for clothes and pay for them almost immediately. However, even though this was a cheaper option instead of getting a physical store, Etop would later recall that it was difficult to even get a dispatch rider in the initial months.

Over the next two years, the duo succeeded in expanding gradually without losing focus of their main goal of providing customers with quality products at affordable prices. By the third year, there were more entrants into the e-commerce industry and competition had become quite tough. So, the couple decided to sell out.

Following the divestment from 3Stitches, he moved on to work for Dealdey.com as the Vice President of Operations. In less than two years, he had become co-MD at Dealdey. The online platform offered juicy deals at discounted prices.

When Dealdey was later acquired by Konga, the new owners saw the need to retain Etop Ikpe, seeing as he was a critical staff. Consequently, the made him the Director of Marketplace Operations. But he wasn’t going to stay at Konga for the rest of his career. The man had plans of his own.

After eight months in Konga, Etop felt an itch to leave. He had always thought of technology for solving critical life problems and at this point in his life, he had spotted another which he needed to address. His personal experiences while trying to sell or buy a car had exposed him to two of the biggest problems of car dealers. Not only was it difficult to sell a car at a good price, the car sometimes developed more problems just sitting in the garage and waiting for a buyer. “Time na money” is a song we all grew up singing, but no one understands the importance of time like a businessman.

Etop realised that there was a need to build a platform that would connect car buyers and sellers in the shortest possible time, as well as enable them to conclude a satisfactory deal. This is how Cars45 came to the rescue, with the mission to sell every vehicle within 45 minutes after inspection. Etop Ikpe came together with co-founders, Iyamu Mohammed, Sujay Tyle, and Peter Lindholm, and Cars45 was established in 2016.

Within the first year of operation, the business recorded a high success rate, earning millions of dollars in profit. Also, Cars45 raised $5 million Series A round in funding from Frontier Cars Group within one year of its establishment. The capital raised was channeled into scaling the business in Nigeria, improving the online platform, and building other revenue sources within the used-cars market, including the used-vehicle space.

Cars45 also effected its international expansion plans in 2019, widening its operations to include Ghana and Kenya, after the Frontiers Car Group raised $400 million in a Series D funding round.

Etop Ikpe insists that the easiest path to success is focusing on the customers. After its commencement of operation, Cars45 did not just focus on making profit but on building customer trust through transparency. This is because Etop understood that business could not thrive where customers do not trust the dealer.

Meet "Bella Shmurda" - The LASU Student Taking Over The Nigerian Music Industry

Akinbiyi Abiola Ahmed, popularly known as Bella Shmurda, is a Nigerian singer and songwriter. He was born in Lagos on february 20, 1997 and is currently a student at the Lagos state university, popularly known as LASU. 

Bella Shmurda is known for his powerful voice and his use of cheeky street slangs in his music. He became very popular (especially in the streets) after he released the remix to his single "VISION 2020" with the popular Nigerian rapper "Olamide" in 2018. The song received positive reviews and became a street anthem that year. In 2020, he released his first project, an EP  titled "HIGH TENSION" which was successful both commercially and critically. It went on to amass large airplays and streams on all major digital platforms, boosting his profile as an artiste immensely.

Bella Shmurda continued making waves with his singles and slowly became a street favorite. He got his first major collaboration on Runtown's "Body Riddim" which also featured Ghanian afrobeat artiste, "Darkovibes". His verse on the song was regarded as refreshing and he was praised for his melodic prowess. He was also featured on Olamide's album, "Carpe Diem" on a track called "Triumphant". Triumphant became one of the most talked about song on the album, topping several charts across the country. He was also featured on Davido's highly rated album, "A Better Time" on a track titled "Fade".

Bella Shmurda  ended his 2020 with one of the biggest songs in the country titled "Cash App". The song is currently topping major charts across the country and is one of the most popular songs on the streets. He was nominated for the "Next Rated" category at the 13th Headies Awards alongside fellow rising stars Omah Lay, Tems and Oxlade. Bella Shmurda is regarded as one of the next big thing and a force to be reckoned with in the Nigerian music industry.