{"id":6098,"date":"2025-05-02T15:58:27","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T15:58:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/02\/be-bold-and-do-it-anyway-mo-abudu-on-her-vision-for-african-cinema\/"},"modified":"2025-05-02T15:58:27","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T15:58:27","slug":"be-bold-and-do-it-anyway-mo-abudu-on-her-vision-for-african-cinema","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/02\/be-bold-and-do-it-anyway-mo-abudu-on-her-vision-for-african-cinema\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Be bold and do it anyway\u2019: Mo Abudu on her vision for African cinema"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mo Abudu has a vision for Africa\u2019s creative economy, and the next stage will start in an old lecture hall in South London. The Nigerian media mogul plans <\/em>to turn the building into a hub for Nigerian food, culture and cinema. <\/p>\n

Abudu first found fame in 2006 as the host of the Nigerian talk show \u201cMoments with Mo,\u201d before starting pan-African network EbonyLife TV in 2013, and EbonyLife Films in 2014. In 2019, she launched EbonyLife Place in Lagos, Nigeria, the twin of her new cultural hub, EbonyLife Place London. <\/p>\n

Setting up in London was an obvious step for Abudu, who was born there and moved to Nigeria when she was seven to live with her grandmother. Her father died when she was 11, and she returned to the UK, moving back to Nigeria when she was 30. <\/p>\n

Abudu had a successful career in HR, but, as she entered her fifth decade, she realized she wanted something different. \u201cI woke up at age 40 and I said, \u2018I\u2019m done,\u2019\u201d recalled Abudu. <\/p>\n

Her friends thought she was having a midlife crisis, but Abudu says that she had just been too scared to switch careers earlier. The fear is still with her now with her London venture, she says, but her attitude has changed.<\/strong> <\/p>\n

\u201cYou may be scared and afraid of doing it, but you\u2019re going to have to just be bold and do it anyway.\u201d <\/p>\n

A film fund for African storytellers<\/h2>\n

Now, Abudu sees opportunity for Nigerian films in the UK \u2013 but only if they are given the right opportunities. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur films are traveling across the continent <\/strong>but they\u2019re not really traveling to the UK for theatrical releases simply because we don\u2019t have the cinemas here that are ready to take those films on,\u201d Abudu said. <\/p>\n

She is intent on making African cinema a business that can deliver returns, and says capacity building is central to that vision. Abudu developed the $50 million Afro Film Fund alongside actor Idris Elba. It will open at the end of 2025 and Abudu believes it can fill some of the gaps in the African creative economy, part of her vision of \u201ccompleting the value chain\u201d of African cinema. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re training, you\u2019re getting funding, your film is getting distributed, you\u2019re monetizing,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Monetization is the ultimate aim in Abudu\u2019s development of the media ecosystem. \u201cIf we don\u2019t build it, we can\u2019t scale the industry,\u201d she said. \u201cIf we can\u2019t scale the industry, we can\u2019t monetize.\u201d <\/p>\n

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<\/div>\n
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Mo Abudu, pictured here as a young girl, was born in London.<\/span> <\/div>
Mo Abudu\/EbonyLife Media<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Abudu’s portrait for the 2025 TIME100 list of most influential people.<\/span> <\/div>
Felix Crown<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Abudu turned 60 last year and, by all measures, seems to be only speeding up. By the end of this year EbonyLife Place London, the streaming platform EbonyLife ON, and the Afro Film Fund <\/strong>will all have launched. She was named as one of TIME\u2019s 100 most influential people this year. <\/p>\n

\n

Related video<\/span> Why the COO of one of the world\u2019s foremost AI companies spent 50 hours interviewing for her job<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Elba, who worked with Abudu worked on the short film \u201cDust to Dreams\u201d and is currently developing a feature film with her, penned her biography for TIME, writing: \u201cShe wastes no time. She has an infectious, can-do attitude and the tenacity to overcome any obstacle in her way.\u201d <\/p>\n

Despite her focus on the business of media, Abudu believes deeply in the need for more African representation in films and television outside of the continent. \u201cIt is time for us to wake up and realize that we need to push out,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to tell our own stories,\u201d she added. \u201cWe have that responsibility to tell them and, as we tell them, they must travel.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mo Abudu has a vision for Africa\u2019s creative economy, and the next stage will start in an old lecture hall in South London. The Nigerian media mogul plans to turn the building into a hub for Nigerian food, culture and cinema. Abudu first found fame in 2006 as the host of the Nigerian talk show…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}