QUESTIONS
1. The partnership between the APO Group and SECAM, what significance does it bring to the African countries and what ways will Africans benefit from it.
APO Group recently partnered with SECAM, the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa, and Madagascar, the governing body of the Catholic Church in Africa (Vatican). The agreement was formalised during a signing ceremony on May 26th at the Vatican in Rome.
While Catholic populations are declining in many parts of the world, they are rapidly increasing in Africa. Over 251 million Catholics in Africa and 600 Catholic Bishops, of which 28 are Cardinals.
The contribution of the Catholic Church to Human Development in Africa is constantly increasing, especially in education and healthcare, for instance. During the last ten years, Africa has been the continent that recorded the most significant increase in the number of schools and healthcare facilities managed by the Catholic Church.
As you may know, APO Group is the leading Pan-African communications consultancy and press release distribution service. We have over 300 clients, which include Netflix, the African Development Bank, and Coca-Cola. In addition, we are the Pan-African public relations agency for FIFA, Canon, and the Jack Ma Foundation, to name but a few.
APO Group supports SECAM across a broad range of communications services, including distributing press releases, training communication staff, and planning meetings with media and other organisations intended to foster new relationships and raise the profile of the Catholic Church in Africa.
Thanks to this partnership, the Catholic Church in Africa can now rely on APO Group to enhance communication by using the same type of public relations service that our existing clients use. These include clients such as the African Development Bank, the European Investment Bank, FIFA, and so many others, such as Canon, Radisson, and DHL.
2. Talking about your partnership with Olympic De Marseille to promote the development of Football, what are the ways to ensure it will benefit the people of Africa?
A year ago, iconic French football club Olympique de Marseille (OM), and APO Group, the leading Pan-African communications consultancy and press release distribution service, announced a multi-year agreement making APO Group the Official Partner of Olympique de Marseille’s OM Africa development programme. The deal made APO Group the club’s first African partner. The links between Olympique de Marseille and Africa have always been solid, with the city of Marseille itself heavily influenced by diverse African cultures. Support for the club is enormous all over North and West Africa, where it is an instantly recognisable, iconic brand. OM has ten dedicated fan clubs operating in Africa, and more than four million African followers on social media, making up 38.7% of the club’s global fanbase. To build on its proud African heritage, Olympique de Marseille has created OM Africa, a football development programme entirely dedicated to its millions of fans from the African continent.
There is already an extraordinary bond between Ghana and Olympique de Marseille. A bond named Abedi Pele. One of the greatest African players of all time who made OM win their first and only UEFA Champions League in 1993. The only French team to have won this coveted trophy.
3. Concerning the APO partnership also with the Olympic Movement in Africa, can you please tell us more about it?
The Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) and APO Group recently entered a strategic, multi-year partnership that will bring greater international prominence to the Olympic Movement in Africa. The Olympics Movement represents the pinnacle of global sport, and ANOCA is the supreme governing body of the Olympic Movement in Africa. ANOCA runs Africa-wide programmes such as the African Games, African Youth Games, African Beach Games, ANOCA U-23 Championship, Olympic Qualifying Tournaments, and ANOCA Women’s Olympic Tournaments.
As you know, in 2026, Africa will host its first-ever global Olympic Games when the Summer Youth Olympics are held in Dakar, Senegal.
APO Group is deeply involved in sport and is the Pan-African Public Relations agency of FIFA, the NBA, and the Basketball Africa League; the Main Official Sponsor of Rugby Africa; and the Official Partner to many other prominent sporting organizations, including iconic French football club Olympique de Marseille (OM) and Africa’s first ever Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) World Tour team, Team Qhubeka.
APO Group is also the strategic partner of Getty Images in Africa and has established partnerships with the International Sports Press Association (AIPS), the African Union of Broadcasting, and the South Africa Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).
Did you know that 984 accredited African athletes participated in the Tokyo Olympics, including 415 women and 569 men?
The partnership will see APO Group support the broader ANOCA organisation and the individual Olympic Associations of all 54 African nations, helping them gain international media coverage and achieve greater visibility.
4 Please tell us about the SEED project.
In October 2020, APO Group became the Official Sponsor of the Sports for Education and Economic Development (SEED) Project. SEED Project works with under-privileged African youth to provide quality education, high-performance sports training, and the leadership tools ‘to make big dreams come true.
It was founded in 1998 by Amadou Gallo Fall, a graduate student from Senegal who was granted a basketball scholarship to the United States and wanted to ensure that young people in Africa had access to the same opportunities. Today, Amadou Gallo Fall is the Vice-President of the NBA and the President of the Basketball Africa League (BAL).
Africa has a highly youthful population. SEED’s primary goals are to maximise school enrolment, retention, and graduation rates and reduce the gender gap all over Africa.
We are proud to be able to support SEED in the fantastic work they are doing with young people all over Africa. APO Group has always championed African sport, and this kind of initiative gives us the chance to help young people change the narrative and achieve the success they deserve.
I will be in Senegal from August 10th to 15th to attend The Hoop Forum, the SEED Project’s annual event that brings together non-profits, corporations, and individuals that use sports as a tool for development in Africa.
