Bamidele Adetunji: I Went Into Theatre Arts By Accident

Bamidele Adetunji

He was not really known in the satellite TV industry until the unveiling of Montage Cable Network. But the company’s Chief Executive Officer/Managing Director, Mr. Bamidele Adetunji had worked in different banks in Nigeria and abroad without an iota of contentment and fulfillment. He is passionately driven by the day, to realise a vision, which he claimed God gave him while undertaking his first degree in Theatre Art at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He was once evicted from his rented apartment and suffered pangs of hunger at times, he he kept his dreams alive. Adetunji takes Gboyega Akinsanmi through his rough road to stardom  

You are not known in Nigeria’s satellite TV industry until this debut. Can you tell us about yourself?
I am a Nigerian by birth. I attended Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria where I obtained my first degree in Theatre Art. 

I later attended Leicester University and Graduate school of Business, Stanford University in the United Kingdom. I have worked locally and internationally. All this time, I have always had a vision to do service-driven business. 

I have always been willing to do something that is different from others. I believe that, especially in a market economy because the determinants are the consumers.

 I believe so much in Nigeria. If you have the right kind of product, backed by quality and consistency, Nigerians will do it.

Looking at your background and setting up of Montage Satellite TV. How did you come about the idea?

After graduating from Ahmadu Bello University, everyone believe once one has degree in Theatre Art, it is either you are a reporter, news caster or artiste. 

But I was grateful enough to have been thought by one of the best lecturers. I stumbled into Theatre Art. I will say this is by accident. I wanted to study literature. But one of my lecturers dragged me to Theatre Art. While I was in school, I had the support of the school constantly. I was the best graduating student in my set. So, the foundation for Montage was created because my first degree was Theatre Art. For me, what one knows will not kill.

 What you do not know is ignorant. So, I decided to go out and explore the world beyond the original Theatre Art degree. Beyond that, I am doing a business which God actually inspired me to do.

Can you narrate the story of how you were divinely inspired to embark on this business venture?

A lot of people can find their reason for being on earth. It is a gift to be on earth. Probably, I am one of the few lucky ones that were able to find their gift earlier in the day after my youth service. I was shown the name of the company when I was in the university. But I did not know then what I would do about the idea. By the grace of God, I am a Christian and then, I am always very prayerful and passionate about God. But as one grow in life; he begins to see some challenges. A lot of things distract you. When you have vision, you need to go through some process so that it can be easily fulfilled.

Realising this vision took almost one decade. Why did it take long time before coming up with Montage? There is something about vision. The day the vision is sowed into ones heart is not the same day it would come into fruition. I went through a journey before I got here. So, in the cause of that journey, I met a lot of people who became influential to what we are doing today. 

During my year of national service, there was no where I could have met all the people I know today. I worked in banks in Nigeria when I returned to the country in 2007. This was the bank that brought me home.  I left the bank and worked for another. But right in my mind, I knew I was never going to be the Managing Director of those banks.

At what cost did you get to where you are today?
It was indeed a great cost. I cannot really quantify it. But the journey was not smooth at all. In fact, there are days that I have had to go without food. Also, there were days that my properties were thrown out of my rented apartment. 

There were days that my friends would tell me that I have a fantastic CV, why can you not go ahead and search for job. One thing about those jobs was that whenever I go and search for job, the employer tells me that I am over qualified. 

Sometime, an employer would say ‘I am sorry we cannot pay for your service.’ So, what do I do? This was not that they rejected me but because they could not afford the required wage that my service will require.

There is are giants already in the PAY TV market. Do you think you can compete effectively in this market?

We are surviving because we are a genuine and pragmatic organisation. Every business has its own culture. We have the backing of our regulators and they have been tremendously supportive of us. 

This is because if it were by the reason of our birth, who knows me? Maybe few people I have worked with or places that I have worked abroad. But we are in business of breaking myths because typically, they will expect that you have to be the son of an influential Nigerian before you can be granted the license.

I just see myself as an inspiration to every Nigerian that is hardworking, dedicated and has a vision and intend to pursuit it. When I was in Stanford, I see several social media applications. I said that all these businesses came out of thinking. So, how were they able to grow because the excuse we always put up is that there is no enabling environment in Nigeria? However, if something is of God, it may take a while for it to come to fruition. 

All I doing today is ordered by God. It is, also, ordained by Him. If not, I would not have gone this far.

Now that you have flagged off, what are you going to do different from what the players in the PAY TV industry have been doing?

What we will do differently was what we have done at the moment. Already, we have a platform that offers affordable, quality and credible alternative service to Nigerians. Our technology is an alternative. It is of the highest quality. Our content selection, aggregation and inscription technology is of the highest quality. So, what we intend to do is to offer the market the quality credible alternative and value for money.

It will be stupid to think that this has been a walk in the park. What we have done is to look at the contextual nature of Nigerian before developing the platform. 

We complain so much about power supply, rain and others. We are inspired to bring a quality alternative into the market. And the first step was our engineering design. We are a very strong transponder that beams directly into the market. 

This is referred to as spot beam. We can then assure you of over 99 percent availability rate against the weather. So, the margin that our signal can go off when it rains is next to zero. However, because we are satellite based company, when it gets too bad, we may go off, as it is common with every satellite based operation.

But Nigeria’s business environment appears harsh to newcomers. Can you really survive in this kind of business environment?

Many people say this. I am surprised because we are not different from the United States, neither are we different from the United Kingdom. The only reason why we can say this business environment is different is because if one is looking outside while standing in a building, you will presume that the grass is always greener outside. But the truth of the matter is that the grass is not always greener on the other side.

It is always about how do you make what you have work for you? So, what we do is to make what we have done work for us without over stretching ourselves as a company and as a people. 

I dress simply. When anyone sees Zulkerberg, the Chief Executive Officer of Facebook, he is always in his T-shirt, jeans and a flip flop. How many people had seen the face of Rupert Murdock on TV until the Levensing enquiry? It is about time that people of our generation begin to understand that the way businesses are growing to become world class is through hardwork, patience, perseverance and others.

With this leap, you have created a number of jobs. How many jobs have you created so far?
As an organisation, we run a very mean and lean structure. With ancillary job creation, we are looking at 1, 000 jobs that would be created at the end of the day.

We have distribution outlets who will engage people to fix the package itself. It is a ripple effect. The effect of what we have done will be felt all over West African states because we cover the entire West African sub-region.