Business reality TV series, Top Trader coming to CNBC Africa

CNBC Africa has announced its first reality competition television series, Top Trader, which will see eight contestants competing for a cash prize of R250 000. With its premier on Tuesday, 11 September at 7:30pm WAT, the series will conclude after nine weeks with a live finale and viewer voting, on Tuesday, 6 November.

“CNBC Africa is about markets and providing investment professionals and lay people with accurate and actionable information”, says CNBC Africa chief editor Godfrey Mutizwa. “The introduction of Top Trader gives an opportunity to open the markets to young people as they begin their working lives. It is a part of our drive to diversify our viewership and content while demystifying the markets to a broader audience. Our first foray into reality TV, appropriately, is about our core business – the markets.”

In the first episode, the contestants and viewers will be introduced to three high profile industry experts who will be mentoring the contestants throughout the competition. They are Nerina Visser, head of Beta Solutions at Nedbank Capital; David Shapiro of Sasfin; and Ashraf Mohammed, CEO of Ascension Properties. Guest mentor in episode one is Simon Brown of JustOneLap.

The contestants are Gary Barford, Goitse Konopi, Jarred Freedberg, Oluwatosin Olaseinde, Nqobile Promise Khumalo, Saul Kaplan, Steven Bolleurs, and Zaheer Salojee.

The contestants are trading with virtual money on the Iress trading platform supplied by Peresys. Their trades are recognised by Dries van den Heever of 3Trade, and they also have access to Share Magic Pro software from Profile Media. Their laptops were provided by Samsung.

Find out more about them by visiting the Top Trader Facebook page or the Top Trader page on ABN Digital.

Top Trader is set to be broadcast from Tuesday, 11 September at 7:30 WAT on CNBC Africa, channel 410 on DStv.