Kemi Omotosho: MultiChoice Nigeria’s CEO on Canal+, the AMVCAs and Building Africa’s Creative Economy

“It is a privilege to be entrusted with the leadership of MultiChoice Nigeria at this important moment. Nigeria remains one of the Group’s most strategic and dynamic markets. I look forward to working with our teams and partners to deepen our relationship with consumers, champion local storytelling and the creative economy as well build a future-ready organisation that delivers sustainable value.”

These were Kemi Omotosho’s words in January 2026, when she was appointed Chief Executive Officer of MultiChoice Nigeria, a Canal+ company, succeeding John Ugbe who retired after nearly 15 years at the helm. With over 20 years of leadership experience across media, telecommunications and digital businesses in Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa, Omotosho is walking the talk.

She has held senior roles within the MultiChoice Group, including Executive Head of Customer Value Management in Nigeria and Group Executive Head of Customer Value Management for Rest of Africa, providing functional leadership across over 50 markets. Most recently, she served as Regional Director for Southern Africa, with full P&L responsibility for a seven-country portfolio.

In this interview after the 12th AMVCA in Lagos, Omotosho discussed the leadership transition, her vision for MultiChoice Nigeria, the impact of the Canal+ acquisition on African storytelling, and what the AMVCAs, which concluded its 12th edition recently, represents for the future of Africa’s creative economy.

Africa Interviews: Congratulations on your well-deserved appointment as CEO, MultiChoice Nigeria. How has the leadership transition been for you since January, and with this as your first AMVCA, what’s your broader vision for MultiChoice Nigeria?

Thank you so much. It has been a full and fast few months. But honestly, the transition has been smoother than many people might expect, and that is largely a tribute to the foundation that John Ugbe and the team built over the years. On the other hand, I’ve spent over a decade in this business, both in Nigeria and across the continent, so the internal landscape is familiar. But leading it, that is a different experience entirely, and I have great respect for what that responsibility means.

This 12^th edition of the AMVCAs, and my first as CEO, is deeply meaningful for me. The awards bring together people who have poured themselves, their creativity, their discipline, their sacrifice, into telling African stories. And MultiChoice exists, in no small part, to make sure those stories reach the widest possible audience. My vision for MultiChoice Nigeria rests on three commitments: deepening our relationship with our customers, championing the creative economy, and building an organisation that is truly fit for the future. We operate in a complex environment; inflation, shifting viewing habits, an evolving competitive landscape. But the fundamentals remain strong. Nigeria is one of the most strategically important markets in the entire Canal Plus Group, and I intend to honour that fully.

Africa Interviews: The AMVCA celebrates African storytelling and creativity. How has the AMVCA evolved over 12 editions to reflect African storytelling growth, and what new elements will the 2026 edition bring?

When the first AMVCA held in March 2013, the ambition was bold; to create a platform that recognised and celebrated excellence in African film and television, broadcast live to more than 50 countries. Twelve years later, that ambition has not just been sustained, it has been exceeded. The industry has matured enormously. The stories are bolder, the craft is more refined, the reach is genuinely global.

What this 12th edition reflects is a natural evolution of that journey. For the first time, we have introduced categories specifically for North and Central African indigenous language films; Best Indigenous Language Film for both regions. That is a significant structural statement: the AMVCA is no longer just Pan-African in aspiration, it is Pan-African in design. The theme this year, “Honouring Craft, Celebrating Culture”, also says something important. We are not just celebrating outcomes; we are recognising the artisans, the cinematographers, the costume designers, the sound engineers, the entire ecosystem that makes storytelling possible.

Africa Interviews: With Canal+’s recent acquisition of MultiChoice, how does this international backing change the trajectory of the AMVCAs — potentially bridging Nigerian content to Francophone and European markets?

Becoming a part of the Canal+ group is genuinely transformational, not just for MultiChoice Nigeria, but for African storytelling as a whole. What this era brings is scale, skills, and technology at a time when the industry is navigating rapid change. Canal+ has deep roots in Francophone Africa and a strong presence across Europe. MultiChoice has built unrivalled reach and understanding across sub-Saharan Africa. We now have the opportunity to take African content to audiences who have never encountered it before.

For the AMVCAs specifically, this means the work celebrated here has a much larger stage available to it. A filmmaker winning an award is not just receiving recognition from peers in Lagos or Johannesburg, that story can now travel further, find new audiences and attract new investment. What matters to me is that we build the infrastructure behind that ambition: the distribution pipelines, the co-production frameworks, the financing mechanisms that allow creators to actually benefit from that expanded reach. Authentic African storytelling remains the key differentiator regardless of platform or geography. Our job is to ensure the world can access it.

Africa Interviews: With rising production costs, how is MultiChoice using the AMVCA platform to drive sustainable commercial growth for African filmmakers?

I strongly believe that the economic sustainability of our creative industry is not optional, it is existential. The AMVCA is not merely a celebration; it is a commercial signal. It signals to investors, distributors, brands, and platforms which content is achieving excellence, which talent is pushing the limits, which stories are connecting with audiences at scale.

But we cannot stop there. The platform must also advocate for the conditions that allow creators to actually be rewarded for their work. Piracy remains one of the most corrosive forces in this ecosystem; it reduces jobs, limits investment, and weakens the commercial value of content that took enormous effort and resources to produce. I continue to call for stronger government and institutional action on intellectual property protection. It is also important to keep building capacity building across every layer of the value chain because sustainable monetisation requires a fully functioning ecosystem, not just a handful of success stories at the top.

Africa Interviews: How does hosting the AMVCA in Lagos deepen your commitment to local storytelling, the creative economy and Pan-African collaboration?

Lagos is unarguably the economic and creative heartbeat of the continent and hosting the AMVCAs here year after year reinforces that reality. Indeed, Lagos State and in particular, the Executive Governor, His Excellency, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, have been very supportive and collaborative in our shared vision. When I look at what the AMVCA and platforms like Big Brother Naija and Africa Magic originals have collectively contributed, over 30,000 jobs created in five years, I am reminded that our work has real economic consequences for real people. Championing local storytelling is not just a commitment, but cultural responsibility, and a long-term investment in the communities we serve. Pan-African collaboration, as seen in our new North and Central African categories this year, is the natural extension of that. The stories told in Lagos and Nairobi and Accra and Kinshasa are not in competition with each other. They are part of a shared continental narrative that the world is only beginning to fully appreciate. And our role at Canal Plus is to keep that narrative loud, visible, and commercially viable.