Leap of faith pays off for ‘Africa’s Oprah’

Mosunmola ‘Mo’ Abudu’

What you need to know:

  • To succeed in the media business, she adds, one has to have a solid business plan, a bankable idea that will convince investors beyond any doubt to pump their money. Her idea was simple, yet profound; to sell Africa in a positive light and make money while at it.
  • “The most important thing that a woman has to hold on to is that she must not be afraid of having a big dream.
  • Ms Abudu has since hosted Hillary Clinton, IMF chief Christine Lagarde and musician R-Kelly, quickly earning her the nickname ‘Africa’s Oprah’- not just for her talk show, but for her roaring success in media.

She has been described as ‘Africa’s Oprah’ because of her success in the media business while Forbes has called her one of the continent’s most successful women.

In an industry dominated by big companies, Mosunmola ‘Mo’ Abudu’s enterprise in the media segment is simply a rarity. In 2006, Ms Abudu had made great strides in the corporate world.

She was the head of human resource at oil giant Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited. But in what seemed like a streak of moon-hard madness, she quit her job for a world of media that she had zero experience to rely on.

She says she realised a gap in the market for talk shows that were exclusively African. She felt that Africa was ready for its own ‘Oprah Winfrey Show’ or ‘Ellen DeGeneres’.

And she approached DStv, which gave her the first hurdle to surmount. The firm was not looking for a pan-African show at the time, however good the idea, DStv told her.

But after persistence and five pilot shows, she finally got a break and ‘Moments with Mo’ show debuted in 2006 on DStv. Today the programme airs across 48 African countries and on cable TV in the UK.

AFRAID OF HAVING DREAM

“The most important thing that a woman has to hold on to is that she must not be afraid of having a big dream. I think sometimes we are conditioned as women to think small and to start small- and medium-sized businesses,” she said during the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Nairobi last week.

Ms Abudu has since hosted Hillary Clinton, IMF chief Christine Lagarde and musician R-Kelly, quickly earning her the nickname ‘Africa’s Oprah’- not just for her talk show, but for her roaring success in media.

“I think it is always important to have a bigger vision of what you want and take baby steps of how you are going to get there,” she advises.
Today, she is the executive chairman of EbonyLife TV, an entertainment network that showcases African content.

The network reaches over 36 million viewers every month and is home to programmes that target the young and trendy audiences. With original content such as a cooking show, and local adaptations of international shows such as ‘Desperate Housewives Africa’, her station is a hit among the 18-34 year olds whom she says are the “custodians of the present and the future.”

But this would never have been possible if three years ago, she did not decide to take the leap of faith into the murky waters of the media business.

In July, 2013, she launched the Africa’s first global entertainment network, EbonyLife TV whose sole aim is to showcase Africa to the world. The station boasts of 1,000 hours of original programming annually.

Her biggest hurdle in making it in the media business was access to capital. To convince investors to commit Sh1.5 billion in a start-up was second to impossible but she was not one to be let off easily.

“This was a business that people in this part of the world are not really familiar with. Media is a business that we really don’t understand. If you say to an investor you want to set up a hotel or another business, they understand those businesses more,” she says.

SOLID BUSINESS PLAN

To succeed in the media business, she adds, one has to have a solid business plan, a bankable idea that will convince investors beyond any doubt to pump their money. Her idea was simple, yet profound; to sell Africa in a positive light and make money while at it.

“To access capital, you’ve got to build a business case that makes financial sense. We were lucky we were able to partner with the Cross River State government (in Nigeria) and we were able to raise the funding that we required. This is why it is important for governments to provide an enabling environment for business,” she adds.

For women, who want to raise capital for their businesses, she advises them not to be afraid of the numbers, but instead keep going until they find a way to make that business model work.

“Sometimes they may not make sense especially if it is debt. It may make sense if it is equity. You have to have a mix of funding; where there is some debt and some equity,” she adds.

Ms Abudu who was born in Hammersmith, West London, raised and schooled in Turnbridge Wells, in Kent, but she makes it clear that she is proud to be African.

Although she greatly admires talk show queen Oprah Winfrey and has modelled her business on Oprah’s, she is keen to be recognised as her own woman who dared the uncharted path.

“I want to be recognised for who I am because my journey is very different from Oprah’s. My journey is on changing the narrative about Africa. The basis on which I exist, my person, my entire being is based around changing the perception that people have of our continent,” she says.

The mother of two; Temidayo and Adekoyejo Abudu has her sights set in changing the stereotype on Africa.

“Africa is on the move and is ready for business. People like us, the media companies like ours are needed to change that narrative and that is what we are doing,” she says.