FEATURE: Naija's Top Entertainment Moguls

Through the dint of foresight, innovativeness, persistence and hard work, these trailblazers have conquered the Entertainment industry to emerge as giants, revolutionizing music, radio & TV, cinema and showbiz. They began when others didn’t believe, at a time when the industry knew no glamour, when such professions were laughed at and discouraged. Here we celebrate the best of them and acknowledge their achievements.

Name: Ben Murray Bruce

Position: President, Silverbird Group

Best known for: His exploits in concerts promotion and Beauty pageant franchises including the Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria (MGBN) pageant which provides Nigerian representatives for the Miss World and Miss Universe pageants internationally. Through his Cinemas in Lagos and Abuja, he revived the cinema culture in Nigeria. Other cash cows in his empire include the Rhythm 93.7 & 94.7 FM radio stations in Lagos, Abuja and Rivers state; and a TV station: Silverbird Television.

Ben has been in the entertainment business for over three decades and has recently expanded the Silverbird brand with upcoming TV and radio stations in other states in Nigeria including his home state of Bayelsa. Silverbird Cinemas is ranked number 3 in Africa with outlets in Kenya and Ghana.

Name: Tajudeen Adepetu

Position: CEO, Consolidated Media Associates (CMA) Ltd.

Best known for: Bringing innovation and excitement to local Nigerian TV programming over the last five years with a string of successful programs under his belt including: Everyday People, Family Circle, Domino and Front Row. His cable TV channels include: Televista, Business TV and Soundcity Music Channel.

Other entities under the CMA umbrella include; Soundcity Blast International magazine, Soundcity Music Video Awards, AlphaVision Multimedia and various Campus Blast music concerts under the Globacom and MTN brands.

Name: Toyin Subair

Position: CEO, Entertainment Highway Ltd.

Best known for: Snatching the exclusive rights to broadcast 80% of English Premiership League live matches in Nigeria from Multichoice Nigeria and DSTV for use in his start-up cable and satellite TV platform: HITV.

He is also a prominent Entertainment & Intellectual Property lawyer with his firm Abraham & Co. representing Blue chip clients like Microsoft Nigeria.

Toyin pioneered anti-piracy campaigns against copyright infringement on software products in Nigeria; acted as Counsel to the first Nigerian Entertainer to win the MTV Base musical awards and represented one of the biggest Recording Companies in the UK in the negotiation of recording contracts with Nigerian artistes.

Names: Kenny ‘Keke’ Ogungbe & Dayo ‘D-One’ Adeneye:

Position: Partners, Kennis Music Group

Best known for: Revolutionizing music programming in Nigeria with their music programs on RayPower 100.5 FM and Africa Independent Television (AIT). The partners are also responsible for the rebirth of Record labels in Nigeria with their outfit Kennis Music, now one of the biggest Record labels in the country today. The partners, under Kennis Music, have released over 70 albums in the last decade which have sold millions of records for artistes such as Tuface Idibia, Eedris Abdulkareem and Tony Tetuila.

Their TV program Primetime Entertainment Africa generates millions of Naira in advertising revenue with clients like NB Plc, Guinness Nigeria, Nigerian Bottling Co. and MTN. The Kennis Music franchise has recently been extended to include a cable TV channel on the Daarsat platform.

Name: Femi ‘Kwame’ Aderibigbe

Position: CEO, Nigezie & Strictly Next Level Entertainment

Best known for: His time as a radio presenter, which he left to produce his own Music TV program: Global Sounds. He established his Record label, Strictly Next Level Records, signing female Gospel Rapper, Bouqui.

Kwame took the industry by storm when he set up Nigeria’s first 24-hr cable Music channel: Nigezie on the HITV platform.

Name: Obi Asika

Position: Chairman, Storm Media Group

Best known for: Storm Records and Big Brother Nigeria. He began in the early eighties with programs on Clapperboard TV, concerts and artiste promotion with the likes of Junior and Pretty. Obi left for the US for a while but returned with a bang! Re-launching the Storm imprint with the Record label: Storm Records, responsible for artistes like Sasha, Ikechukwu, Naeto C, Jazzman Olofin and Dare Art-Alade.

Storm Vision has produced a string of hit reality TV shows like Big Brother Nigeria, The Apprentice Africa, Dragons Den and Amstel Malta Box office. Other entities in the Storm group include IBST, Storm Interactive and Storm production.