Tajuddeen Adepetu is a Nigerian media mogul, entrepreneur, founder and CEO of media conglomerate - Group8 (previously

Consolidated Media Associates CMA Group (short for Consolidated Media Associates Limited) is a Nigerian global mass media company with interests in broadcasting, print and events management. It is West Africa's largest broadcasting and cable company in terms of airtime sales/ ...

(CMA)) consisting several free to air and direct to home television channels and radio stations including Africa’s popular music channels Urban TV and radio,

SoundCity TV Soundcity TV is a 24-hour Nigerian lifestyle and music channel based in Lagos from Consolidated Media Associates Limited. Soundcity TV describes itself as a "pan-African urban music TV channel." Soundcity TV is a popular TV station and showcase ...

and radio, Televista, OnMax,

Spice TV Spice TV (officially named Spice Fashion Television Channel) is Africa's first dedicated English-language specialty channel for fashion, owned by Consolidated Media Associates. The channel broadcasts both local and international programming r ...

, OnTV, Correct TV and radio. Adepetu is also a TV producer and the executive producer of SoundCity MVP Awards, an annual award that recognizes musicians and performers across Africa. He has mentored a number of on air personalities such as

Moet Abebe Laura Monyeazo Abebe (born 29 July 1989), popularly known as Moet Abebe, is a Nigerian video jockey, television presenter, actress, and catering exec. Early life Born in the United Kingdom, she went to Corona Ikoyi Primary School for her prima ...

and

Denrele Edun Adenrele Oluwafemi Edun popularly known as Denrele (born 3 June 1981), is a Nigerian television presenter, actor, model, and dancer who has been recognized with many awards including The Best TV Personality at the NEAs in New York 2011, Dynamix ...

through his media platforms

Early life and education

Tajuddeen Adepetu is a native of Erin-Oke but was born and raised in

Jos Jos is a city in the North-Central region of Nigeria. The city has a population of about 900,000 residents based on the 2006 census. Popularly called "J-Town", it is the administrative capital and largest city of Plateau State. The city is situ ...

, Plateau State. He earned a bachelor's degree in Film and Television from the

University of Jos The University of Jos, abbreviated as Unijos, is a federal university in Jos, Plateau State, central Nigeria. History What became the University of Jos was established in November 1971 from the satellite campus of the University of Ibadan. T ...

before proceeding to the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) College where he trained in script writing.

Career

Adepetu media career began in radio as a fresh graduate from the University of Jos in the early 1990s with the establishment of his company Consolidated Media Associates. His first contract was production of radio jingles in

Fulfulde Fula ( ),Laurie Bauer, 2007, ''The Linguistics Student's Handbook'', Edinburgh also known as Fulani ( ) or Fulah (, , ; Adlam: , , ; Ajami: , , ), is a Senegambian language spoken by around 36.8 million people as a set of various diale ...

dialect for a Veterinary Research Institute. He left Jos for Lagos in search for media opportunities 1995. Once in

Lagos Lagos ( ; ), or Lagos City, is a large metropolitan city in southwestern Nigeria. With an upper population estimated above 21 million dwellers, it is the largest city in Nigeria, the most populous urban area on the African continent, and on ...

, Adepetu noticed the growing

Nollywood Nollywood, a portmanteau of Nigeria and Hollywood, is a sobriquet that originally referred to the Nigerian film industry. The origin of the term goes back to the early 2000s, traced to an article in ''The New York Times''. Due to the history ...

and television programming and diversified his radio script writing into movie and television programing scripting. His first TV drama script ''Family Circle'' was received with critical acclaim and soon after he produced a popular sports game show the ''Hard Tackle'' on local TV, an award winning TV series ''Everyday People'' and produced ''Critical Assignment'' starring Michael Power.

Media organisation

CMA Adepetu established Consolidated Media Associates in 1990 focusing on print, broadcasting and events management. CMA subsidiaries include Alphavision Multimedia and General Media Production with footprints in Terrestrial Television, Cable, digital and satellite. CMA owns several free to air and direct to home television channels and radio networks in Nigeria and Kenya including

Soundcity TV Soundcity TV is a 24-hour Nigerian lifestyle and music channel based in Lagos from Consolidated Media Associates Limited. Soundcity TV describes itself as a "pan-African urban music TV channel." Soundcity TV is a popular TV station and showcase ...

, Trybe TV, Televista TV,

, ONTV Nigeria, Correct TV, ONMAX, VillageSquare TV, Urban96 Radio Network, Access 24, Soundcity Radio Network and Correct FM. Group8 In 2020, Adepetu renamed CMA Graoup8 as a holding company to bring all his media channels, events and technology properties under a single brand name for easy identification following complaints by his staff that it was difficult to identify all his media channels, events and tech properties under different names. Under the new name, all TV channels are grouped as Cre8, radio channels as Radi8, event projects as Activ8 and tech properties as Innov8 to form Group8.

References

Nigerian television company founders Nigerian radio company founders Nigerian screenwriters University of Jos alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Living people {{Nigeria-screenwriter-stub