Kemi Omotosho: Taking charge at MultiChoice Nigeria after a defining era

Kemi Omotosho: Taking charge at MultiChoice Nigeria after a defining era

As the first female CEO of MultiChoice Nigeria, Omotosho inherits both a milestone and a demanding brief, writes…

Earlier this week, MultiChoice Nigeria announced the retirement of its Chief Executive Officer, John Ugbe, and the appointment of Kemi Omotosho as his successor.

It is a baton handover that closes one long chapter and opens another at a time when the operating environment has become more complex. Omotosho steps into the role as the first female CEO of MultiChoice Nigeria, bringing with her over two decades of experience across Sub Saharan Africa. Her career has been shaped less by headline moments than by long exposure to scale, pressure and challenging markets.

She takes charge of one of the Group’s second largest, dynamic and volatile market at a moment when the local business climate has tightened. Economic data arrives in gloomy bursts. Consumers are cautious. Costs are high. Competition is louder and global. This is not a season for comfort.

Until her appointment, Omotosho was Regional Director for Southern Africa at MultiChoice Group, with full profit and loss responsibility for a portfolio across seven high value markets; English and Portuguese-speaking. It was work carried out in the thick of currency volatility, inflationary pressure and changing viewing habits.

Exactly the sort of conditions that tend to uncouple weak assumptions very quickly.

That experience sits on a solid training base. Omotosho began with a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from the University of Ilorin, later adding an Executive MBA from Lagos Business School. Over the years, she has passed through executive and leadership programmes at INSEAD, IESE Business School, Duke Corporate Education and Harvard Business School, alongside MultiChoice and Naspers leadership tracks designed for senior decision makers.

More recently, she completed the MultiChoice Top Leaders Programme at the Gordon Institute of Business Science and served as an executive member of The Boardroom Africa, while also mentoring within the MultiChoice Africa Advancing Women Programme.

The through line is clear. A steady investment in judgement, governance and performance rather than flash credentials.

Professionally, she has moved comfortably across depth-wise from a professional perspective and breadth-wise from a general management and countries’ perspective. Known for achieving synergy across functional units, people who have worked with her often describe a style that values clarity, speed and judgement. Keep what works. Fix what bends. Drop what breaks.

She will be building on the foundation laid by her predecessor, John Ugbe, whose relationship with MultiChoice Nigeria began in 1998 and took him through almost every layer of the organisation. When he returned in 2011 as Managing Director, Nigeria’s pay television market was opening up. That year saw the launch of GOtv, a move that widened access and reshaped the company’s mass market reach.

Under his leadership, the business expanded steadily in size and presence.

In 2013, the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards were created, giving African film and television a formal platform for recognition. That same year, the Abuja office was commissioned and DStv Explora launched in Nigeria.

By 2014, initiatives such as GOtv Boxing Night, BoxOffice on DStv and Africa Magic Showcase reflected deeper local engagement and a broader content mix.

Ugbe also oversaw a push into empowerment and digital transition. He launched a variety of economic empowerment initiatives, including the Canvassers and GOtv Sabimen schemes which launched in 2016, and these have since created work opportunities for over 15,000 Nigerians. In 2017, DStv Now, now DStv Stream, entered the Nigerian market alongside the return of Big Brother Naija after an eleven year break.

His appointment as CEO in 2018 aligned with the launch of the MultiChoice Talent Factory, a fully funded skills programme for young professionals in film and television.

That momentum continued. Showmax launched in Nigeria in 2019. A purpose built Big Brother Naija house and studio rose in Lagos. In 2020, the company committed ₦1.2 billion to COVID 19 response efforts through sensitisation campaigns, cash support and PPE donations. Ugbe later became Chairman of the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria and, in 2023, launched The Nigerian Broadcasting Awards.

By the time he retired, MultiChoice Nigeria had grown to 11 branches nationwide, expanded GOtv coverage to 52 cities, won over 50 local and international awards, and intensified initiatives in local creative development. Productions linked to Big Brother Naija, AMVCA and Nigerian Idol were credited with creating more than 25,000 jobs in five years.

Demonstrating MultiChoice’s structured succession planning, Omotosho’s task now is to carry that legacy into a more dynamic phase of the market cycle. Her brief covers strategy, profit and loss, cash management, governance and regulatory relationships, with responsibility across DStv, GOtv and digital platforms. The emphasis will be affordability, simplicity, value for money and keeping customers at the heart of everything MultiChoice does.

It is a change in tone as much as timing. Ugbe leaves behind a business defined by reach, visibility and institutional weight.

Omotosho steps in shaped by markets where resilience mattered as much as growth. The footing is firm, but the road is narrower.

How she balances that inheritance with the realities of today’s Nigerian media economy will shape the next chapter.