22 Women-Led Companies That Are Changing the World
Mosunmola “Mo” Abudu
Founder, chairman and CEO, EbonyLife TV
Mosunmola “Mo” Abudu is chairman and CEO of one of Africa’s most successful new media ventures — the Nigeria-based television network EbonyLife TV, which endeavors to tell real African stories and change the conversation around the continent.
Growing up in the UK raised by Nigerian parents, Abudu was subjected to slews of ignorant, “mind-boggling” comments and questions about African life and culture (“Do you guys live in trees?”), which triggered a desire to dispel the world’s inaccurate perceptions.
“Somewhere deeply buried in my subconscious was a need to tell Africa’s story. My burning desire is just to tell everybody: Listen, we’re not a bunch of savages. We really are gifted,” she told the Independent.
Abudu took an unorthodox route to entertainment. She returned to Nigeria in the early 1990s, working as the head of HR for ExxonMobil until 2000, when she left to launch her own HR consulting firm and, several years later, a hotel in Lagos as well. In 2006, she decided to ditch the corporate world and break into TV. She started “Moments with Mo,” which became the first daily talk show syndicated across the continent, landing high-profile guests like Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund, and Hillary Clinton, then the US Secretary of State.
In 2013, Abudu launched EbonyLife, where she produces a wide array of TV shows, from her own talk show to an African version of “Desperate Housewives,” which she landed in a deal with Disney. She has also inked content distribution deals with CBS and Netflix. The network now provides premium content to to 49 countries across Africa, as well as the UK and the Caribbean.
