Meet Ajibola, educationist turned ‘mediapreneur’

Aminat Ajibola, a graduate of the Department of Biology, College of Education, Osun State University is an entrepreneur, who engages in using media to keep people informed, entertain and tell stories through her platform called Amiloaded Media Hub.

She is a professional blogger, a media guru, communication expert, brand manager and public relations consultant. Most recently in her growth is how she has been able to explore and master the trend of event management and coordination.

According to Ajibola, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Amiloaded Media Hub revealed that, Amiloaded Media Hub, which comprises of other business outfits like Amiloaded News, Amiloaded TV is a fully registered platform with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).

“Apart from being a registered media platform, Amiloaded news outfit was the genesis of my involvement in news blogging, a brain child which I nurtured from infancy as a way of bringing news and events closer to Nigerians within and outside the country,” she said.

Apart from being a successful media practitioner, the Osogbo-born also indulges in social services through her Non Governmental Organisation (NGO).

“I am the convener of the annual Osun Youth Ambassadors Awards (OYAA) OYAA aim is to appreciate and encourage outstanding youth from Osun through my NGO, Youths Reformers Initiative.

“We are into many programmes which one of them is operation feed the street kids, which usually takes place during the yearly children day,” she said.

She believes her platform is different from most of the conventional blogs that are used to copying news materials from the leading news sites in the country, hence saying that the uniqueness in what she does has the paved way for her unprecedented growth in the industry, within the few space of time she started the business.

“My blog, in all modesty is into corporate journalism and digital marketing which has contributed immensely to the successes recorded since the platform was established,” she said.

She disclosed that the television section of her media hub has an in-house studio where different educative, entertaining and informative programmes are broadcast from and that has continued to keep and increase her viewers and patronage.

“Our flagship programme on Amiloaded TV brings to limelight our traditional and religious leaders, business mogul and entrepreneurs, political class, etc.

“We usually bring these people to share their thoughts and opinion about trending issue as it relates to their community, environment, Nigeria and the world at large and we have a dedicated Youtube channel for our Amiloaded TV,” she said.

Ajibola believes her passion for independence and self-reliance motivated her to tow the part of an entrepreneur.

“From my childhood, I have encouraged and motivated myself into having an independent mind on all issues, I have opened myself to reading and studying to seek for knowledge that would foster me and that’s what motivated me into trying a profession that would enable me to be self-reliant,” she said.

She said being an internet addict, motivated her into using the medium to keep people informed as well as earn a living from it, which eventually made her become the first female blogger in Osun State.

“I love surfing the internet, especially to search for anything that can add value to me. In the course of keeping myself busy, less dependent on my parents and a way of creating a niche for myself in the communication world, I just woke up one day, had a painstaking thought and took a frantic decision to turn my passion for online addiction to making money, by breaking news and events to people using a blog.

“My informed decision was after a survey I carried out where I discovered that, as at then, 60 per cent of people, despite having an internet enabling phone still rely on Radio, Television and Newspapers for news, which is the tradition. So I decided to do things differently, and more interestingly, I became the first female blogger in Osun State, a path-finding and pacesetting challenge that have shaped my horizon and confidence over time,” she said.

Ajibola’s startup capital was N11,000, which she used for the creation of her blog and designing of the blog that is now over three years old now

“My blog’s website was officially opened in December 2015 and my startup capital was N11,000, this money was used for my blog design and creation then. That was three years, seven months ago, and that was how I opened my blog website www.amiloaded.com, which is the genesis of all I have achieved in the media space,” she said.

She said her sole business has boomed to the extent that she now has eight direct staff, who are report directly to her and help her in handling her various media activities.

“Today, I have eight other professionals working under my employment to expand the scope and vision of Amiloaded Media Hub,” she said.

Ajibola said her plan is to continually create more informative and educative content for her teeming audience as well as establishing a journalism academy where people will be properly trained on the profession.

“My short term plan is to expand the frontiers of our TV unit, to create more informative and educative content that will liberate people economically, educationally, politically and in the longer run, the vision is to establish Amiloaded Academy to develop new skills in journalism for Radio and Television and the new media for students and young startup who are willing to go into the media world,” she said.

She recounted the challenges confronting the media profession, which bloggers are not exempted, particularly the stress of sourcing for news, seeking clarification, calling for confirmation before publishing the news.

“I have had instances of individuals denying news published which in its true state is the fact and truth of situation, aside having your facts, the agony of been tagged of bias or one-sided, especially when you publish a political story  and it favours one political party against another,” she said.

Ajibola wants government and media practitioners to always organise capacity training for journalists, so as to keep them abreast of the development in the industry.

“My recommendation to the government and media practitioners is to consistently organise seminars, capacity building workshop to sensitise journalists, media practitioners and bloggers on latest development in content, approach and policies for curbing fake news, hate speech, election coverage, conflict reporting and many more,” she said

She is already a recipient of over 20 awards of outstanding recognition, both nationally and internationally.

Ajibola advises Nigerian entrepreneurs to discover themselves by finding what they are good at, before delving or concentrating on any profession.

“My candid advice is that people should discover what they are good at, what they can do freely on their own without being coerced, make up their mind to succeed irrespective of the myriads of challenges and obstacles that might confront them as the journey progresses, and this adventure will, in turn, make them happy and can then be turned into a money-making venture.

“Don’t do what you think others are doing, believe yourself and have in you, the you can do it spirit, and lastly, be prayerful in everything you do,” she said.