What telling African stories through films does to Biola Alabi

Her name may not ring a bell, but you definitely cannot talk of the success story of Dstv's Africa Magic channels without giving credit to her. Biola Alabi isn't just a woman of many parts, she's a great motivator, team player and a game changer. When she assumed office as Regional Director of M-Net Africa few years back, Biola had a sole mission to change the wrong perception people had about Africa.

As a young female entrepreneur with a burning desire to positively impact on the society, Biola is pained that Africans are not doing enough to change the mindset of the western world who still believe that the continent is a place of war, hunger and backwardness. That was why, when she had the opportunity to move back home after her studies, and having worked with such big organization in the United States, as Sesame Street, which is the largest producer of children content in the world, the beautiful role model did not give it a second thought. She quickly jumped at a job offer as Regional Director of M-Net Africa, marking a turning point in the way African stories and values are projected before the rest of the world.

Biola said, she has been passionate about changing the way people see Africa.

Sharing her inspiring story with Entertainment Plus, the former M-Net boss, and now, Managing Partner of Biola Alabi Media, said telling African stories through films drives her passion. “I have always been passionate about changing the way people see Africa,”she began.

“When I was in the university, I was the President of African Students Union. We used to bring different African empowerment events into the university. For me, that has always been my driving passion. Having people ask me things I know that are not true about Africa is one of the things that drive my passion, which means that I believe we are not doing enough for the outside world to still think that Africa is a place of war, hunger and backwardness.

“That means we are not telling our own stories; we are not travelling enough; so, how do we tell our African stories, my renaissance stories and make sure that our stories are global? That has always been my passion; it has always been something I have done right from when I was the Regional Director of M-Net Africa. At M-Net Africa, we created a platform that could travel across the continent, not only for Nigerians to watch but also, the whole continent to watch the content. I think that has extremely been effective. And today, they are some of the highest channels on the bouquet of AfricaMagic channels. But at the end of the day, channels are aggregation of content; So, at the height of what I do, I create content. I have been marketing content to television stations. So, in setting up my own company, Biola Alabi Media, I knew I wanted to continue to tell the African stories. And we do that through television, film and even in marketing content. It's not addressing one way. You don't change years of misconception in one day through one platform. We do that in multiple platforms and we are introducing more platforms which we can use to our own advantage,” Biola narrated.

Though she was not responsible for the creation of Africa Magic, Biola actualized her dream of showcasing Africa to the rest of the world through the platform. Since the coming of AfricaMagic, propagating the African story has been special. From one channel, Africa Magic was expanded to eight channels, courtesy of Biola Alabi.

Talking about the creation of Africa Magic, Biola admitted that she was not the originator of platform.

“I don't think I conceived the idea of AfricaMagic. It was a platform that was already there. And when I assumed office as M-Net Africa Regional Director the channel was trying to do what they wanted to do, which is showcasing the African stories. I believe I was very fortunate, having been able to come into a place where there was a brand that was struggling and we were able to put a new life into that brand, expand and grow it. I think that brand is now a household name across the world. I don't know whether it was a household name when I came on board. But I'm very proud to be part of that team,” Alabi said, capturing the excitement and fulfillment she derives from telling the African story.creating those brands on the channels and creating screen identities for the different stars. We knew that people like epic stories and traditional stories, so we created a channel to take care of those needs. That was how we created AfricaMagic Yoruba, AfricaMagic Hausa,Africamagic Swahili, Africa Magic Entertainment and a bouquet of Africa Magic Channels, from one channel to eight channels. I believe we were able to change the face of Nollywood and help receive Nollywood around Africa and beyond. Those were the things we saw the needs for, and nobody was doing it then, she explained.

Biola Alabi ranks among the most powerful young women in Africa. In 2012, she was listed as one of the 20 youngest powerful women in Africa by Forbes, World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. She was also a recipient of CNBC Africa's AABLA West African Business Woman of the Year in 2013 and Yale World Fellow in 2014.

Before landing the lucrative M-Net job, Biola made her marks at Sesame Street which is the largest producer of children content in the world, working under the domestic programme in the US. She also worked in Marketing, Community Outreach and later worked in the International Strategy group where she accomplished a lot of projects. She also worked in South Africa, Tanzania and Kenya. While working in Sesame Street, Biola was looking for a way to move back home and that was how her work there evolved in working on a project in Nigeria. She secured the first pilot project and funding for Sesame Street Nigeria, but at the time, I got an offer from M-NET.”