AFRICAN ENTERPRISE & DEVELOPMENT
Investor | Operator | Filmmaker
I have always been interested in how power is built: who controls capital, who moves value, who shapes the narrative, and who has the capacity to execute.
Today, that interest drives my work across African industry, investment, global trade, and media. My ambition is to build African-owned businesses that develop resources, manufacture products, connect markets, and create original stories.
I am developing an ecosystem of complementary businesses, each with a distinct role. Through BlackCity Industries, I am building toward mining, manufacturing, industrial development, and physical commodity trading. Through Africa Trade Security (ATS), I help protect capital moving through African commodity transactions through due diligence, market intelligence, counterparty risk assessment, and transaction security. AfriGen is my vehicle for private investment and development. Through OVG, I build media, entertainment, and storytelling ventures—including Africa Business, our platform for African trade, investment, and market intelligence.
I came to this work through media. Over the past two decades, I have built ventures across journalism, entertainment, technology, and original content. My work has reached approximately 20 million views and has included interviews with presidents, heads of state, and senior political figures, with a career spanning the United States, Nigeria, and the United Kingdom.
That journey has taken me from covering the White House and President Obama’s visits to five African countries to launching an SVOD streaming company, developing an AI chatbot, completing Harvard Business School’s Program for Leadership Development, and working on major Hollywood productions alongside leading filmmakers.
These experiences inform how I build. Industry creates productive capacity. Capital determines what gets funded and who owns it. Trade connects that production to markets. Media shapes what people understand. Film expands what they can imagine.
Film and storytelling remain central to my purpose. Creating original work and building productive businesses are both ways of shaping the future—and ensuring Africans have greater ownership of their resources, their opportunities, and their stories.
My focus is increasing African ownership, execution capacity, and global economic power. I operate across industry, capital, and media—using storytelling not merely to explain power, but to build it.
Harvard Business School, Executive MBA (PLD) Graduate 2023-2024.
Tufts University, Fine Arts & Mass Communications BFA 2007-2011
Bio
Early Career
2005–2011: Scoop Magazine, Early Journalism & Hollywood Training
Oba’s media career began in 2005 while she was a student a Roedean Moira House (formerly Moira House Girl’s School) in the UK, where she founded Scoop Magazine, a Nigerian teen publication she distributed in Lagos during school breaks. She later completed high school at the Dwight School in New York City, further developing her creative and media skills. During this period, she conducted her first celebrity interviews with Missy Elliott and Victoria’s Secret model Oluchi Onweagba, marking her early entry into journalism and entertainment media.
She later attended Tufts University from 2007, where she developed professional media competencies—studying film, communications, and digital storytelling. During this period, she began building documentary and production skills that set the foundation for her future commercial and broadcast work.
During university summer breaks, she interned in Hollywood, where she worked across music video, film, and commercial production environments, gaining hands-on experience in studio-level filmmaking, editing, and production management.
2012–2016: Founding OVG & Expansion Into Commercial Production
In 2012, Oba founded OVG, a commercial media production company specializing in documentaries, commercials and branded content, corporate storytelling, digital and broadcast media production, and creative direction for global brands. Through OVG, she produced work for clients including CNN, ARISE, and the Olympic Games, and covered major international events such as the World Economic Forum, UN General Assembly, the MTV Video Music Awards, New York Fashion Week, and both President Obama’s Africa trips. OVG marked Oba’s entry into full-scale entrepreneurship, enabling her to produce both commissioned and original content rooted in global and Pan-African narratives.
Breakthrough Era
2017–2020: On-Camera Journalism & Launch of StreamOVG
Oba began developing her on-camera skills in 2015, and her public-facing journalism career accelerated between 2017 and 2020. During this period, she became known for her Nigerian political documentaries, broadcast journalism, and film analysis. By 2020, she had conducted interviews with seven heads of state from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Nigeria—including Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Muhammadu Buhari, and Goodluck Jonathan—across multiple occasions.
In 2020, Oba launched StreamOVG, a digital streaming platform showcasing her documentaries, films, and original content. The platform marked her expansion from production into independent distribution, enabling her to circulate Pan-African narratives directly to global audiences.
2021–2024: Podcasting, AI Innovation & Executive Leadership
Oba expanded her media ecosystem in 2021, amassing millions of viewers as she entered podcasting and broadened her commentary into African economic literacy, geopolitical analysis, entertainment, and cultural education. Through platforms such as BlackCity Network (formerly Brand Video Pro), Business in Nigeria, and The Kenim O Show, she demonstrated her versatility, delivering complex analysis and high-level technical and critical thinking across a broad spectrum of topics.
In early 2023, at the onset of mainstream AI adoption, Oba developed Räe, an AI chatbot assistant available on Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook. Räe quickly grew to more than 5,000 monthly users, demonstrating strong market traction and validating Oba’s ability to design innovative, consumer-facing AI products. Her early success in this space aligned with the broader industry shift toward personality-driven AI models, later reflected in Meta’s own rollout of AI characters.
Oba further strengthened her executive capabilities through Harvard Business School’s Program for Leadership Development (PLD), completed in 2024, positioning her to lead large-scale economic, institutional, and Pan-African development initiatives.
Current Era
2025–Present: Africa Trade & Investment Intelligence
Since 2025, Oba has focused her work on Africa trade and investment intelligence—building and operating across investment, commerce, transaction security, media, and economic development.
Through AfriGen Development & Innovations, she develops investment and economic-development initiatives designed to strengthen African enterprise, expand execution capacity, and support greater African ownership. Through Africa Trade Security (ATS), she applies direct experience in African commodity transactions to help businesses identify counterparty risk, verify critical documentation, protect capital, and navigate complex trade environments. Through OVG and Africa Business, she produces media, market analysis, and storytelling that shape how African opportunities, risks, and economic power are understood.
Her work now centers on:
African trade and investment intelligence
Investment strategy and economic development
Commodity-market and counterparty risk
Transaction security and forensic due diligence
African value-chain development
Media, film, and strategic storytelling
Technology-enabled platforms for African markets
Rather than treating investment, trade, security, and media as separate disciplines, Oba connects them as parts of a single economic system. Her operating experience informs her analysis; her analysis shapes the businesses she builds; and her media platforms distribute that intelligence to broader audiences.
This phase of her work is grounded in a clear objective: to help transform African resources, enterprise, and ideas into greater ownership, stronger institutions, increased execution capacity, and lasting economic power. She operates across capital, markets, and media—using storytelling not merely to explain power, but to build it.
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