Celebrities light up Bebuzee app unveiling

Leading Nigerian entertainers, filmmakers and technology stakeholders gathered at Four Points by Sheraton, Lagos, recently, for the unveiling of Bebuzee, a digital platform that combines social networking, entertainment, streaming, e-commerce and artificial intelligence.

The event attracted notable personalities, including Patience Ozokwor, Jide Kosoko, Ebele Okaro, Segun Arinze, Zubby Michael, Zeb Ejiro and Paul Obazele, among others.

The platform also unveiled Ozokwor, Okaro, Kosoko, Zubby Michael and Destiny Etiko as its brand ambassadors.

Speaking at the event, the founder and Chief Executive Officer, Joseph Onyero, said the platform was created to reduce the need for users to switch between multiple applications to access different digital services.

He said, “I created Bebuzee to solve a lot of problems people face jumping from one app to another. You want to shop, you jump to another app; you want to watch a video, you jump to another app. This made us develop one ecosystem where you can do a lot of things. For Bebuzee, you can do over 15 things on one app. You don’t need to jump from one app to another.”

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He said the idea behind the app dates back to 2004, when he and some friends developed a messaging service concept that was eventually not activated.

The Director-General of the National Film and Video Censors Board, Dr Shaibu Husseini, who was the keynote speaker, urged digital platforms to prioritise intellectual property protection, proper licensing and transparent revenue-sharing arrangements.

He said, “We have entered into a more complex ecosystem in which the distinction between a television screen, a cinema screen, a mobile phone and a digital platform is becoming increasingly blurred.

“This extraordinary promise of communication technology has made it possible for our narratives to be everywhere. Today, our narratives can potentially reach an audience in London, Johannesburg, Toronto, New York, Accra or Nairobi without the filmmaker physically travelling to those places.”

The Executive Secretary of the Lagos State Film and Video Censors Board, Bukola Agbaminoja, also called for greater collaboration among regulators, technology companies and creatives to address emerging challenges associated with artificial intelligence.