"On a recent trip to Spain, Nigerian media mogul Mo Abudu seemed to be losing sight of what was meant to be a short retreat. Late into the night she was still answering emails, returning texts and speaking with colleagues overseas."
Nearly three years after Abudu launched the upscale entertainment and lifestyle network, the woman often referred to as “Africa’s Oprah” has a full plate: inking deals with the likes of Netflix, CBS andDisney; unveiling an ambitious slate of formats and original programming; and presiding over an expansion of the network from its original home in eastern Nigeria, with a new studio opening this month in Lagos, the country’s entertainment and media capital.
It’s all in keeping with a philosophy nearly a decade in the making, since Abudu became a household name with the debut of her talk show “Moments With Mo.”
“There are so many African stories that are yet to be told,” she said. “Let’s take these stories to the world now. That’s the journey we’re on.”
For Abudu, that journey has been many years — and unexpected twists — in the making. Born in the U.K. to Nigerian parents, she moved to Lagos in 1993 and spent more than a decade in the corporate world, where she launched a consulting firm and, later, a hotel.
In 2006 she conceived “Moments With Mo,” which would become the first syndicated daily talk show on the continent. Sitting across from an impressive range of guests, from Nigerian Noble Laureate Wole Soyinka to fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg to then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Abudu began to earn comparisons to her idol, Oprah Winfrey. Read the rest here
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