Kugali

Introduction

There is a growing demand for local content across different African countries and also globally, particularly when we consider the growth of the African Diaspora. This has coincided with a growth in the number of African content creators. However, there are virtually no platforms through which members of the audience can discover African content across these mediums. Furthermore, content creators (game developers, animators etc) have virtually no distribution platforms available to them making it incredibly difficult for them to monetise their work.

it is expected that up to 300 million people in Africa will soon have broadband internet access(over the next decade). However, traditional distribution methods are extremely limited in terms of reach for example, cable TV services only service about 8-to- 10 million households.Therefore, digital content distributed via the internet is fastest and most efficient way to address the growing demand for content in Africa.

Concept

Kugali aims to address the problem of distribution by creating a digital showcase platform for African comics, video games and animation. The goal is to help content creators network, connect with a relevant audience and monetise their work. On the other hand, we also plan on addressing the other side of this problem, helping audiences discover the best local content. By aggregating the best African games, comic books and cartoons and making use of machine learning we aim to build the best discovery platform for African content across these categories.

The first phase of this project will be to focus on comic books and comic related art. For the purpose of this application we will only focus on this first phase of the project. The plan is to create a database that houses all of the best African comics as well as a subscription service at allows our users read these comics for a monthly fee. We are currently experimenting with the idea of implementing this in the form of a digital jump magazine. The idea is that each issue will have 3-5 comics as well as interviews and exclusive art work. We are currently testing a prototype of this service to build early traction and learn more about our target users.

This project is an international collaboration with participants from Africa, Europe and North America. Part of our goal is to create a zeitgeist that unites members of both the African continent and diaspora. Therefore it is important that this project is is diverse as possible and includes participants from as many different (African) backgrounds as possible.

Key activities

Content curation: Our curation activities will mainly consist of finding the best African
animation, comics and video games and adding them to our database of products.

Content distribution: We will also offer content creators the option of distributing their work directly with us. At present we are in talks with Vortex inc and Comic Republic, the two largest Nigerian comic book publishers as well as Avandu and Enigma Comix who are based in Kenya and Zimbabwe respectively.

Social: We also want Kugali to be a social platform. Some of our features include allowing users to rate and review their favourite products, follow their favourite content creators and interact with them and create lists of their favorite products.

Live events: in order for our industry to thrive it is important that we have conventions and conferences. We have already held several events on Meetup so we know that there is a demand for live events. We will continue hosting meetups however, for larger events we plan on partnering with other established bodies. We are already in talk with the organisers of both the Lagos and Zimbabwe Comic Conventions as well as the the Africa Writes Festival in London.

About the team

Olufikayo Adeola, Chief Operating Officer and based in the UK, is an entrepreneur with diverse cultural, professional and educational experiences, coupled with strong analytical and problem solving skills. He has worked in multiple fields ranging from finance (Standard Chartered Bank) to journalism (The Guardian Newspaper). He also has a degree in screenwriting from City University London and Economics from the University of Sheffield. His time is currently split between freelancing and working on Kugali.

Olowofoyeku Tolu, Chief Technology Officer and based in Nigeria, is an independent game developer and founder of Illuminare Game Studios. He may have studied physics at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, but his bread and butter is creative processes from software and games development to blogging and YouTubing. He was even a part of the small team that hosted West Africa’s first Skating Marathon in 2013, so you can find him wherever the geeks and excitement are. He is currently working on Kugali as it’s Chief Technology Officer.