Thank you for this opportunity.  Thank you Sundance, Skoll, and thank you Mara Batlin, my producer for your patience and commitment.

Storytelling is powerful.  I think that’s why we’re all in this room today.  You tell one story and you create hope and a dream of a better tomorrow.  Tell a different story and you degrade and humiliate.

CONNECTED is a powerful story of two Nigerian entrepreneurs returning home from the Diaspora committed to bringing ICT, Information and Communication Technology, in essence, cell phones, to assure more transparency and accountability in so doing change the future of their country….

Some important economic facts:

1. Today, no one in West Africa or most of Africa for that matter can transact business on-line.

2. The result of being excluded from the on-line marketplace is hyper-inflated cost of goods.

3. With goods double and triple what they are in the West, corruption is rampant and the struggling middle class cannot afford any of the amenities we enjoy in the West.

4. Those who have the opportunity immigrate, perpetuating the brain drain..

5. Those who remain behind are the most vulnerable and abused.

No Entrepreneurs, No Business…No Business, No Jobs…No Jobs, No Middle Class…No Middle Class, No Economic hope for the working poor, No path into the formal economy…extreme poverty.

A possible solution… CONNECTED:

Two successful Nigerian men, Dr. Aloy Chife, former Chief Technical Officer for Apple and his COO, Anthony Nwachukwu return home from the Diaspora to build SW Global, a billion dollar company.

In 2007, they are given the task of providing a digital platform for Nigeria’s National Post Office.  One year later, $93 million dollars are remitted to the government.  In the previous 48 years since independence, there has never been a single dollar returned to the Nigerian government.

In 2008, SW Global brings software solutions to the visa and passport office.  Six months later, $8 million dollars a month in revenue is generated and the time it takes to get a passport is cut in half.

2009, the Nigerian government mandates that every ministry must be on a digital platform.  The job of creating National identification cards, driver’s licenses, and sim cards are all up for grabs.  Major companies around the world compete for billion dollar contracts.  8 out of the 9 finalists asked to pitch are non-African, SW Global wins the bid and the company grows three fold.

ICT brings transparency to governance, accountability to people in power and opportunities for visionaries and entrepreneurs…

What you saw is not the complete story, it is just a sampling of the first act.  A group of Africans who come together to be part of a company committed to changing the future of a continent.

What we will see…

Dr. Chife and Anthony Nwakchuwk on a mission to change destinies, their personal lives, their struggles to succeed in a highly toxic, highly corrupt environment, the application of projects they are running and ultimately, their victory or failure. And through it all, we will see if they maintain their commitment to social transformation or will they become the latest in a club of corrupt billionaires?

Two employees, Kimmi and Yaa, who have no better option then to believe that hard work matters and that faith in the destiny will liberate themselves from a path of poverty.

What we have yet to find…a family in a poor community…whose lives transform because of the opportunities granted through technology..

I found the right story in LIBERIA: AN UNCIVIL WAR.  I found the right story with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in IRON LADIES OF LIBERIA. Once again I am confident I found the right story for the right time, a story that brings hope and possibility to a place where there is too little of either.

Thank you…