‘I knew media was going to feed me despite studying religion at University‘

Habib Akewusola is the founder of Stémma Studios parent body of StémmaTv a multimedia studio based in Ilorin, Kwara State. The writer, author (Teenage Leadership Capsule), poet, and graduate of Religion from the University of Ilorin, disclosed why he ventured into journalism and established a media platform.

How did you find yourself in journalism despite studying religion in your undergraduate studies?

Journalism started for me during my university days at the University of Ilorin. Aside from being a member of the Union of Campus Journalist (UCJ), I also owned a blog Campus Vapor where I documented my writings. During my JAMB exams, I actually applied to study English, but my JAMB combination was for Law, I guess that was why JAMB in their wisdom placed me in Islam Studies, but no regrets anyways. I also wrote a lot of poetry before, during and after my undergraduate days, so I had to constantly read the newspapers and watch the news to keep myself abreast of what was happening and to also look out for space to publish my work. Eventually, before leaving school, I had over 60 poems published in almost all notable newspapers in the country. At this point I knew journalism/the media was going to feed me moving on.

What informed your decision to establish a media platform?

An age long quote says ‘Information is Power’. I rephrased the quote into ‘Information is power, which could be expensive to acquire’ this brought about monetising whatever information one gets. If you want to read the newspapers, you need to pay to buy them. If you want to watch global news from the best media houses, you need to subscribe either on cable TV or online, meaning the right information is expensive. There are a lot of free resources online to make money and all, however, if you want to fully unlock certain business concepts and techniques, you would really need to pay a coach. Hence, this taught me that if I can get the right information, the scarce information, people will pay to get it from me. In Nigeria, we have a large market of over 200 million people, it means you just start small. If you service 5,000 people for a start that’s actually not bad and you begin to grow from there.

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Being a startup, how have you been able to compete against established platforms?

To be honest, we aren’t competing with anyone and the content space is so large now because of the diversity of the audience online. What used to be beats in a newspaper has now become niche, meaning, a reporter who reports only crime or economy can as well own his or her own website or community online and feed her audience only with her niche. In trading, if you monitor the Igbos, they sell only one particular product, you see someone who sells only shoes while her neighbour sells only bags and the following neighbour sells only clothes or electronics. This is exactly what the online space has become.

How have you been able to grow your audience?

Having a listening audience is the main deal online, it’s also called engagement. It is quite easy now through digital marketing, you can always advertise your page to a diverse public. Although we recently lost our pages on Facebook and Instagram with a total of 17,000 followers, we are grateful, immediately we opened a new page and our followers have instantly started following us. We are also very active on YouTube. It is Imperative for anyone with an online media house to organically grow his/her audience as it adds credibility, visibility and as you know these platforms have started paying Nigerian content creators.

What challenges do you face in the course of the job and how do you overcome them?

Data, light, verification of information. Sometimes, the network just becomes a nightmare when you need to upload or post a vital or breaking news, this makes us get different network providers access to the Internet. Light is another issue, which I guess is affecting all small businesses in Nigeria today, we spend a lot on fuel, servicing generators at crucial times the fuel isn’t even there to buy. Power bank is eventually the saving grace. Fake news comes not only from propaganda but when everyone is in a hurry to break a certain story and you know not all of us operating online have a journalism background so they break stories that’s not true or entirely true as they couldn’t verify their source.

How do you feel being a job creator?

For now, there’s no special pride in creating jobs, because we are not there yet, however to the talents and creatives who have passed through StémmaTv and found their foot along the line, we are proud of them, and we pray the Almighty keeps StémmaTv for many years so we can become a more profitable venture with an array of staffs and creative finding a fulfilling career part under our roof.

What are your future goals?

Expand Stémma Studios as a foremost reputable broadcast station with a presence across the 36 states of Nigeria, the continent and beyond with a strong and ethical work culture. I will also love to see Stémma Studios with strong Departments (StémmaTv, Stémma Radio, Stémma Records, Stémma Talent Factory)