London-based actress Diana Yekini and two others from United States of
America will arrive in Ghana today for the shoot of an upcoming movie
titled, ‘Refugees’.
The new movie is being directed by award-winning director Frank Rajah
Arase. Major scenes of the movie will be shot at locations in Accra
including James Town and some parts of Ghana’s coastline.
Other scenes will be shot in the UK and some other African countries.
Reports on Monday said Frank would not be using big named Ghanaian
actors in this production. This is because he wants to achieve a certain
aim with this movie- catching the eye of a different audience. Arase is
yet to publicly speak about the upcoming production but a source said
the production would start tomorrow.
Diana Yekinni is the winner of Screen Icon Search, organized by Golden
Icons, producers of the most credible black entertainment film award,
Golden Icon Academy Movie Award (GIAMA) in Texas, Houston.
She will be arriving in Ghana for the first time for the movie with
Okawa Shaznay, ex-Miss Cameroun USA, who is also a Nollywood, USA-based
actress in Texas.
Also with them will be Best New Actress at the last GIAMA awards,
Belinda Effah. Belinda is a great talent and is a receiver of
Nollywood’s most promising actress award, Nigeria, and Akwa Ibom
Youth-Recognition Award, Nigeria. Reports say the three beautiful ladies
will be playing lead in the movie.
Dancehall artist Samini is set to drop a new single titled “Time Bomb”
on December 12. The song, which features Empire Mates Entertainment
(EME) signed act Wizkid, is said to be a banger.
Samini has had a relatively quiet year but has staged a strong comeback
recently with two successful shows including Joy FM’s Night with the
Stars music concert, and the Malta Guinness Top of The World concert,
held at the Independence Square on Saturday.
In all two shows, the dancehall act gave a good account of himself, proving why he is still a force to reckon with.
His last studio album “Crucial Entertainment Outlaw” (CEO) was released
two years ago, and as expected, music lovers can’t wait to see him drop
a new one.
Today (December 5) is the birthday of popular actress, Jackie Appiah. She was born in Canada.
Jackie who was a runner up at the Talent Teens Competition started
acting at the age of 12 in her local church group. Their performances
mostly demonstrated the Christian way of addressing and approaching the
public. However, her professional acting career began when she was cast
as Enyonam Blagogee in the TV series Things We Do for Love.
Following her onscreen debut Jackie went on to create a successful
acting career including starring in the smash hit movie Beyoncé
alongside prominent Ghanaian actors Van Vicker and Nadia Buari, quickly
establishing herself as an ‘A’ lister.
Jackie’s face has graced many billboards and magazines. Jackie has also
cashed in on her ‘A’ list status as she has endorsed many products and
was the spokes person for AID/HIV awareness campaign in Ghana.
She has won numerous awards, including a prestigious Africa Movie
Academy Awards (AMAA) for best supporting actress in 2007. And the most
recent award was the one she picked at the National Youth Achievers
Awards in the Performing Art category.
Her filmography includes: Against My Will, Pretty Queen, Mummy’s
Daughter, Beyonce – The President daughter, Tears of womanhood, Fake
Feelings, Princess Tyra, Run Baby Run, Divine Love, et al.
We wish her a superb day today.
Kwame Nsiah Appau, known in the Ghanaian
music circles as Okyeame Kwame has revealed that his dad ‘fired’ him as
radio presenter at Fox FM.
According to Kwame, there were many
private issues he needed to deal with and he could not pretend as if all
was all when he came on air.
The rap doctor made this statement when he appeared on the Hang Out segment on the Cruise Control show with Kwame B.
He said, his father did not mince words when he told him, “I’m advising you to quit or I will sack you.”
He
explained that he realized how bad he was when he had no listeners
contributing to his show on air when the phone lines were opened for an
hour.
He disclosed that, “since nobody was calling I had to
pretend that we were having problems with the production and phone
lines.”
Okyeame Kwame also took time to talk about the upcoming Versatile Show as well as his carrier and how far he has come.
He said, the show is being put together by Prof Nii Artey and Uncle Ebo Whyte.
He
explained that the show will be divided into three parts, first is
“Okyeame Kwame classics”, where he will perform most of his old songs,
then he will move to “Okyeame hustle” where other musicians join him on
stage to perform and “Okyeame Kwame now”, bringing to bare all his
latest songs.
Oprah Winfrey has lost her long-held title as
the richest black woman in the world to a Nigerian oil tycoon,
according to a report by an African business magazine.
Edging out
Oprah is Folorunsho Alakija, a 61-year-old woman from Nigeria who is
reportedly worth at least $3.2 billion, or roughly $500 million more
than Oprah's $2.7 billion net worth, Ventures Africa reported.
Alakija
is the founder and owner of Famfa Oil, which owns a 60 per cent
interest in OML 127, an offshore oil field that produces roughly 200,000
barrels of oil per day and is worth an estimated $6.44 billion.
Also
a fashion designer and philanthropist, Alakija is married and has four
grown sons, as well as one grandchild. She owns at least $100 million in
real estate and $46 million private jet, Ventures Africa reported.
Born
into a wealthy Nigerian family, Alakija started out as a secretary in
the mid 1970s at the now defunct International Merchant Bank of Nigeria.
Several
years later, she quit her job and moved to London, where she studied
fashion design. She later returned to Nigeria and launched her fashion
line, Supreme Stitches, which caters to upscale, high-society women.
While
she was building her name as a fashion designer, Alakija in 1993
applied for an Oil Prospecting License -- an expensive permit that
allows for oil exploration in a specified area.
The Nigerian
government granted her request and allocated a 617,000-acre block of
land to Alakija for oil exploration -- but she knew nothing about
finding and extracting oil.
So in September of 1996, she
appointed Star Deep Water Petroleum Limited -- a subsidiary of Texaco --
to act as a technical adviser for her business.
In 2000, Star
Deep Petroleum determined that Alakija's land contained an excess of one
billion barrels of oil. When this was discovered, the Nigerian
government tried to re-acquire half of the oil-rich block it had sold to
Alakija.
The Nigerian government was successful and Alakija lost
control of all but 10 percent of her oil company until 2012, when
Nigeria's highest court reversed the government's actions.
With
Alakija now back in control of 60 percent of the oil company, her net
worth has shot up to $3.2 billion, an estimate that Ventures Africa
calls extremely conservative.
Alakija's sons now run Famfa Oil and her husband, Modupe Alakija, is the chairman of the company.
She
recently purchased a $102 million property at One Hyde Park in London,
as well as a Bombardier Global Express 6000 jet, which she bought
earlier this year for $46 million.
Her charity, Rose of Sharon Foundation, gives out small grants to widows and orphans.
Nollywood veteran actor Enebeli Elebuwa, is dead, reports say.
The
actor, who is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) died
Tuesday night at an Indian hospital after battling with partial stroke
for more than a year.
The actor Enebeli Elebuwa was flown to an
unnamed Indian hospital for proper medical attention after attempts to
treat him at the St. Luke’s hospital, Sabo, Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria failed.
Early
this year, controversial Nigerian man of God, Apostle Sign Fireman
posted a video on video sharing site, YouTube claiming to have healed
the veteran actor of his partial stroke.
The video showed Enebeli
struggling to walk during the healing service done for him. The pastor
thereafter claimed that in a matter of days, Enebeli would be able to
walk well.
The actor, soon after, denied the healing and was subsequently flown out of Nigeria after his condition worsened.
While
on admission in India, members of his Ndokwa community of Delta State
based in India visited to lend him support and wish him speedy recovery.
Enebeli Elebuwa was a native of Upkane in Otagunu local government area of Delta State.
His
dad died when he was 10 years old, forcing him to leave his home town
when he was only 12 years to stay with someone in Lagos.
Pa
Enebeli, as he was affectionately called, was a retired civil servant
and an actor who had over three decades of acting experience. Enebeli’s
first ever acting role was in the soap Mirror In The Sun.
He
appeared in the first three pilot episodes of that series and
eventually worked as an assistant producer and director. He has since
been part of many productions including Heaven’s Gate produced by another veteran actor Zik Okafor.
Enebeli’s first movie was a film (celluloid) called Dinner with the Devil, produced by Sanya Dosumu in 1974 where he played the role of a police officer investigating a crime.
He also featured in other major films including Bisi Daughter of the River by Jab Adu and Eddie Ugboma’s Oyenusi. He also acted in the now rested popular television drama, The Village Headmaster.
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