Oma Marilyn is a driving force across various sectors of African media, holding key roles as a Radio and TV presenter, Executive TV producer at Oma Living Show. In addition, she is an astute speaker and human Resource Manager at ABiT Technologies. In this interview with Lucky Nwanekwu … She addresses critical issues in the tech space and shares on key projects of ABiT technologies and future projections.
You are a professional with many sides, who is also involved in a lot of projects. How do you balance it all?
The question is a very good one, one that interests me especially seeing the word balance; because I am a balance advocate. To answer your question, I balance it just fine.
People marvel at my capacity and versatility. My secret is simple: I am very intentional!
This makes me good at planning, rationing and prioritization. Being a very multitalented and gifted person, it is expected that I will fit into a lot of things effortlessly and excel in them all! And it is even more so, when having these talents mixed with being a hard worker and a lover of process.
But gratefully, I discovered myself and my life purpose and set goals per time. So, as I advance, different things come into the picture all aligned with the core.
My purpose is to inspire the uninspired and everything I do is aimed at this.
Talking about the media, I am not just a producer and TV host! I am a niche TV Host and my focus is on human capacity development. So you can clearly see the link between what I do as a media person and being the HR manager/overseer of ABiT Mobile Application Limited.
Everything I do connects in the middle—to make people better in order to make planet earth better.
How do I balance all that I do? Everything I do is linked to my purpose. That creates a natural balance
Talk to us about Oma Living Show and Unsung Heroes. What was your inspiration for starting your Company? What gap does it fill in the current market space?
Oma Living Show is a media and social brand set up to inspire the uninspired. The brand is focused on the youths, our value system and the society. We are all about tackling nagging issues that come in the way of people striving daily. The Oma living show being a brand that is big on human capacity development takes self-discovery, education, social orientation, entrepreneurship, soft skills inculcation and development very seriously. Daily, we try to reach young people through our contents and activities in order to make them better so that value can be added to the society and the society will be better for us all.
Now, Oma Living Show has major themes; one is celebrating unsung heroes and bringing them to limelight. You will agree with me that we have many people in the society who are doing great things but are overlooked due to many reasons.
The show creates a platform of recognition for these unsung heroes: people who contribute to the development of our society. So, we decided to go beyond just interviewing them on the show and writing about them to creating an award platform that will honour them.
At the Oma Living Show Unsung Heroes Award and Entrepreneurship Conference, it is purely merit.
This is one of the things that make us stand out. When everyday people know that they don’t need to pay bribe to be recognized for work done, they will be encouraged. It is the platform we have created.
The gap we fill and will always fill is improving the quality of human resources in our society. Human resource is the most important resource on earth. Humans give relevance to everything. Without us, nothing on earth will have value. So we are always trying to help young people better. That’s the only way our society can be developed. When the Human Resource in the society is top quality, businesses will thrive because more people will be useful. Businesses will have better employees, entrepreneurs will perform better, crime will be reduced and lots more. This is the gap we are filling.
You are also a big name in the Blockchain industry and lead a team at ABiT Network. Tell us about your works in Tech and what Blockchain is all about?
I am the HR manager and overseer of ABiT Mobile Application Limited. My works in tech are all we do at ABiT. We are changing the narrative and the mentality of the people through innovation. All thanks to the founder of ABiT Mobile Application Limited. What we are doing is very massive and unimaginable, sometimes I am shocked. But we are making great progress. Just last week, we made history by selling out our utility token TATCOIN 17 days before the end of pre-sale. We didn’t just stop at creating TATCOIN, we have also sat down to think about creating products and services that will be powered by the blockchain technology and which will be use cases for TATCOIN.
This is for the everyday persons to understand that Cryptocurrency is just like money, the difference is that you, can’t feel it or touch it. And because we have the everyday people as our target, all our products and services are things that they need. All I can say is: watch out for us.
We know you also organised a lot of campaigns like March Against Societal Vices, March Against Rape, March Against Domestic Violence. Please share some thoughts regarding the current situation of rape in the country and what can be done about it?
Rape…Rape is a thing! It is even worse than a nagging issue. The issue of rape is one that has to be tackled from the root and I am of the opinion that there should be drastic punishment for offenders. The social media campaigns, outpour of emotions, and road marches are all good but there is more to be done. Who are these rapists? They came from homes right? Who are the parents breeding the people that eventually become rapists? We need to go back to the roots. The most important part of the society is the family.
This will go a long way to solve the issue of rape. Family, parenting, values.
Tell us about the “Right Stage Project” and the achievements you’ve had with it in Nigeria?
So the right stage is the charity and empowerment arm of the Oma Living Show. When it started, we looked at the entire set up and what we hope to achieve and realized that if we really want to inspire the uninspired, then we can’t just be on TV or social media alone.
Many people who fit into our target audience don’t have access to the TV and social media. So how do we reach them? I am not in my career for just glamour or fame. I am here for real impact. So, we realized that we have to reach out to these ones and inspire them too. This brought about the Right Stage Project. We started with public schools in Abuja suburbs. We have gone to over 40 schools in 4 states in Nigeria. We have also gone beyond schools to organize lots of events for young people all aimed at making them better. Trust me, the impact so far is enormous and we haven’t even started. We have given scholarships, financially empowered people to start businesses, mentored and coached so many young Nigerians.
How has technology changed your life for the better and where do you see tatcoin in three years?
The Oma Living Show is in existence because of technology. My gifts are blazing and I am making great impact because of technology. I am so grateful and glad that I am a millennial. Technology was made for me. That’s all I can say.
In three years, tatcoin will be what it was created to be… Africa’s biggest utility token!
1 in every 10 Africans will be a tatcoin user. There will be massive reception and adoption. Tatcoin will be accepted as payment option in many shops, stores, businesses and anything that requires transactions across Africa. We are already seeing the signs.
What problems in your industry keep you up at night thinking of solutions?
For my industry, I am afraid that substance seems to be going into extinction.
People are just tripping after fickle things instead of passing through the right channels to real self-development. The internet is such an enormous blessing but we also know it can be used wrongly. These are some of the issues; depleted values, nothing is censored.
Another issue is the lack of corporate sponsorship and support for struggling entrepreneurs who are doing the actual work. Well, I am not one to focus on problems. I find ways to navigate them and do what I can do per time!
Where do you see Oma Living Show and Unsung Heroes growing to in the next five years?
In 5 years, Oma Living Show would be massively recognized and felt in the African continent. We hope to own Africa’s first orientation and reorientation institute which will be a human capacity development institute aimed at making people better. I won’t say much about this. We hope to also develop a lot of great contents, produce feature films that will be addressing and giving insights to most of the nagging issues experienced by humans, just wait for it.
The unsung heroes awards in five years should have a big collaboration with similar global platforms like Forbes. The award project would have gone way beyond Nigeria. Through this platform, many Nigerian startups will be able to showcase themselves better and create partnerships and relationships internationally.
What advice do you have for the ambitious young African women on living a life of purpose in the professional setting?
My advice to every young person not just women is, discover yourself, activate that self, live in alignment with your values and purpose, trust the process and ultimately, please be a person of character. You can be good and still succeed.
