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: African Enterprise & Development

Kenim Oba’s current work spans African industry, investment, global trade, and media. She is developing an ecosystem of complementary businesses with a shared ambition: to strengthen African ownership, expand productive capacity, and connect African resources, products, and ideas to global markets.

Through BlackCity Industries, she is building toward mining, manufacturing, and industrial development. MintedXchange, a BlackCity affiliate company, focuses on physical commodity trading, supplying minerals, metals, and other commodities to industrial and commercial buyers.

She founded Africa Trade Security (ATS) to address risks facing businesses and capital moving through African commodity transactions. Its work encompasses due diligence, market intelligence, counterparty risk assessment, and transaction security, informed by her direct operating experience. ATS operates separately from BlackCity Industries.

AfriGen Development & Innovations serves as her vehicle for private investment and development, with interests in African value chains, productive assets, enterprise development, and long-term economic opportunity.

Media and filmmaking remain central to her work. Through OVG, she develops media, entertainment, and knowledge platforms, including Africa Business, focused on African trade and investment intelligence, and Anatomy of Power, which explores the political, economic, and cultural systems shaping Africa and the wider world. Through OVG Studios, she develops original film and television projects across documentary, narrative, and unscripted formats.

Across these ventures, Oba connects the ability to produce, invest, trade, and tell stories with a broader commitment to African economic power. Her focus is building businesses and original work that give Africans greater ownership of their resources, opportunities, and narratives.