6th March, 2014
Funsho Arogundade
Few days to the second edition of AfricaMagic Viewers Choice Awards, AMVCA, Mrs Abiola Alabi, Managing Director, M-Net Africa, has resigned her appointment with the multinational cable/satellite content company.
Though leaving the company at this auspicious time has been mired in controversies, Alabi, P.M.NEWS learnt, tendered her resignation letter some days ago but she will still coordinate the AMVCA ceremony holding on Saturday, 8 March, at the Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos. The awards was conceived under her tenure as the head of the company.
It was gathered that Alabi’s planned exit from the company has been on since November 2013. Though she has served past her tenure, she was prevailed upon to complete all the running projects including AfricaMagic’s 10th anniversary celebrations held late last year and the AMVCA holding this weekend. And having delivered on her mandate, she is now stepping down from her exalted seat.
Alabi, who joined M-Net as its managing director in 2008, has been noted as one of the most accomplished and powerful women in African media.
Coming from a background of extensive research and experience garnered from working in some top corporations in the United States and Asia, sitting atop a giant media outfit like M-Net Africa was a little bit easier for Alabi who brought to bear her expertise from those global media and entertainment firms.
Under her watch as M-Net boss, the company witnessed unprecedented growth in terms of programming and expansion.
Alabi spearheaded the expansion of the AfricaMagic channels brand and made it available to audiences in sub-Saharan Africa.
She successfully launched the language channels, AfricaMagic Hausa and Yoruba in 2010 and followed it with AfricaMagic Swahili in July 2011.
In May 2012, Alabi led an ambitious restructure of the AfricaMagic channels, expanding the channel line-up from five general to eight specifically themed entities.
She further encouraged more African talents in the areas of acting and production as exemplified in the highly successful soap, Tinsel and other locally-produced soaps.
Alabi has also been working on the AfricaMagic Original Films project to help develop African film and television. All these have earned her accolades on the continent and globally.
She was named as a 2012 Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and served as a member of the forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Entertainment.
At a point, Alabi made it to the 11th position of Forbes’ listing of Africa’s Most Powerful Women in the Media.
“I feel very fortunate especially as a woman to have held such a position and whereby I am able to affect people’s lives and also encourage other people, and develop young talents,” Alabi told P.M.NEWS in an earlier interview.
Alabi is married to Mako Alabi, former managing director, Lagos State Signage and Advertisement Agency, LASAA.
Meanwhile, Wangi Mba-Uzoukwu, M-Net’s first Regional Director, West Africa, will oversee the affair of the company until Naspers (the parent owner of the company) appoints another substantive managing director.
Wangi, who joined M-Net from Airtel Nigeria Limited where she was Head of Brand and Marketing Communications, has resumed her new position since 1 March.