BusinessDay Media Limited, the foremost provider of financial and business intelligence in West Africa has announced its first technology asset acquisition as it pursues its growth and expansion programme and seeks to create a new future for the organisation.
The media company has also named four new non-executive directors joining its board as it seeks to strengthen governance at the top.
The directors include Richard Ikiebe, Olumide Obayomi, Ngozi Dozie and Bobby Aigbogun.
The acquisition, TheRealGist is an entertainment and lifestyle online platform targeted at the young and upwardly mobile anywhere in the world and it marks the first technology asset purchase by a media company in Nigeria.
The acquisition is also aimed at increasing BusinessDay’s value proposition at a time of rising digital convergence and competition.
A statement by the management of the company said TheRealGist will aim to serve its addressable market with news and analysis on happenings around the world, ranging from music, movies, celebrity chitchat, health, fashion, love and relationship tips, food and events, among others.
The acquisition by BusinessDay, which is 15, has the objective of helping to consolidate its leading position among content providers in the news media space.
Oghenevwoke Ighure, BusinessDay’s director in charge of digital services, said the acquisition is one of the firm’s responses in building a string of robust digital platforms tailored to Nigerians at home and in the diaspora, as well as other consumers across the world.
Ighure said, “our strategic objective is to extend the value we offer subscribers and readers, to include lifestyle and entertainment. The idea is to create a one stop shop for its readers, who no longer have to open multiple tabs, just to stay informed”.
TheRealGist platform started off as Qwikgist in 2012, but was later changed toTheRealGist in 2015.
“Our main objective is to become one of Africa’s most visited online platform within four years,” he said.
The international award winning BusinessDay is marking its 15 years in business and financial journalism and this announcement signposts its credentials as a committed and credible provider of vital information and insight to its market.
With its first newspaper roll out on July, 2, 2001 the dependable business newspaper which has achieved milestones and soaring readership in all strata of the society, set for itself a vision to create a platform that engages the society, providing the heart of business news and canvassing innovation and changes in the society.
A statement by the company said Richard Ikiebe joins BusinessDay’s board as chairman. Ikiebe, a distinguished journalist and journalism teacher, currently holds the position of senior fellow at the Pan-Atlantic University, where he leads graduate courses in journalism and executive courses in leadership.
Obayomi returns to the board of the company as director, having served in that position earlier. He is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria and currently chairman of ABC Transport Limited. For many years, he represented African Capital Alliance on the board of the company.
Dozie, CFA on the other hand, is currently a director of Kaizen Venture Partners. He worked as an investment banker at JP Morgan, assisting clients with mergers and acquisitions advisory and capital financing and prior to that, Dozie who holds an MSc from Oxford University and a BSc from Imperial College, as well as an MBA from Wharton, worked with Arthur Andersen UK as a business process risk consultant, as well as with Deloitte & Touche, as a financial analysts.
The other new non-executive director named to the board of BusinessDay is Bobby Aigbogun who currently works as an analyst at Goldman Sachs in London. He holds both a bachelors and masters degree in engineering science from the Oxford University, where he studied chemical and biomedical engineering.
“We are quite delighted at the new board appointments, especially given the expertise of the in-coming directors and we are looking forward to them making immense contributions in piloting the growth plan of the company in the years ahead,” says Publisher/CEO Frank Aigbogun.
BusinessDay, which has a thriving conferences and events, as well as research and intelligence units, aims to be a multiplatform provider of business and financial intelligence in Africa by leveraging technology in delivering content to consumers around the world.
Daniel Obi
