By Deji Abdulwahab
The 2023 African Day Campaign seeks to bridge the content gap on the web by organising a content drive campaign to tell stories of notable Africans and Nigerians in a right perspective, an official has said.
The Coordinator of the Africa Wiki Challenge, Mrs Obiageli Ezeilo, said this on Friday while commemorating the Campaign with some teachers and some students in Abuja.
The campaign which has as its theme, “Africa Continental Free Trade, Bridging the Africa Content Gap, One Article at a Time” is slated to hold from May 20 to June 20 2023.
Ezeilo said that the event started with some training on how to navigate the English Wikipedia and Wikidata, dovetailed into the editing session where participants were guided to pick notable Africans and Nigerians in the field of business.
According to her, the aim is to stop the misrepresentation and under-representation of Africa globally by telling the African story as it is.
“And bringing to the fore ,strides and accomplishments of Africans in the areas of commerce and industry as well as showcase the opportunities presented by the African free trade continental agreement.
“The Africa Wiki Challenge has over the past two years collated over 4000 articles about Africa, contributed by participants all over the world.
“These include countries like Ghana, Nigeria, U.K, Canada, Russia, Rwanda, USA among others. It is organized in conjunction with Wiki media foundation.”
She added that the campaign would also highlight the challenges and encourage stakeholders to work to address them.
“we can shed light on these challenges which then increase the visibility of this knowledge and encourage stakeholders to work together toward addressing them.
“We can also highlight the benefits of free trade, such as increased access to markets, enhanced competitiveness, and the creation of new opportunities for entrepreneurs and small businesses.”
The coordinator said that the campaign also aimed at promoting the achievements of African entrepreneurs and innovators on the web.
“We can inspire the next generation of business leaders and innovators to seize the opportunities presented by the AFTCA. By creating more inclusive and representative digital knowledge networks.
“We can ensure that young Africans have access to accurate and diverse information about the benefits of free trade and how they can participate in it”.
Speaking on behalf of participants , Mr Hogan Bassey expressed joy at the knowledge gained and committed to contributing to the body of knowledge as well as partaking in other Wiki based activities.
Bassey said he participants also took out time to socialize with music interlude and a photo session to end the day’s activities.
Mrs Evelyn Eneja said, “I never knew we had so many Africans especially Nigerians in business and the gaps they have been filling economically”
