REDTV, which showcases the best in entertainment, music, news, television series, lifestyle, travel, comedy, fashion for a global audience has launched its Francophone version.
With the launch of French language content of REDTV, the lifestyle station has now extended beyond Anglophone Africa to 10 French-speaking countries in which the UBA group operates.
The event, supported by UBA, was held at the Azalaï Hotel in Abidjan Cote d’Ivoire.
Speaking at the event, the managing director of UBA in Cote d’Ivoire, Mrs. Sarata Kone, said the launch was an acknowledgment of the Bank’s recognition of its diversity as a pan-African financial institution with presence in 19 African countries in major financial capitals of London, New York and Paris.
She added that the event was in tandem with the Africapitalism philosophy of the chairman of UBA Plc, Mr. Tony Elumelu’s call on all Africans to take full responsibility in developing the continent.
Also speaking, Cote d’Ivoire’s minister of culture, Mr. Bandama Maurice, commended the bank’s unique vision.
“A development where an organisation like REDTV takes it upon itself to reset the African narratives by projecting it as a continent that offers opportunities to its ambitious and talented youth, is not only welcome, but is indeed laudable,” he said.
The event featured the screening and premier of REDTV’s first francophone TV series, Boutique Hotel.
Boutique Hotel was produced in collaboration with Alexandra Amon, a young producer and actress from Ivory Coast who won the best prize in the television series of FESPACO Awards with Chroniques Africaines in 2015.
Boutique Hotel features a young woman, Lola Durant, played by Alexandra Amon, who takes over the reins of a hotel residence once run by her widowed mother. Without experience, Durant faced an uncommon staff and a rather unusual clientele.
“I am truly happy and proud to contribute in my own way to the Ivorian cinema and even happier that nations like Nigeria chose to trust us in developing our art,” said Amon.
The series, where love and low-blows intermingle, is the first francophone programme on REDTV channel.
The launch was attended by the Ivorian minister of African Integration and Ivoirians of the Diaspora, Mr. Ally Coulibaly as well as distinguished players in finance, public and entertainment industries in Cote d’Ivoire and other neighbouring countries.
