Alex Okosi

Alex Okosi, 32, Nigeria-born and U.S.-bred, has spent two years building what now is one of the fastest-growing international outposts of the farthest-reaching cable channel in the world--MTV. He has done it on a continent infamous for famine, poverty, genocide, despots, never-ending wars and AIDS: Africa.
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To reach them, Okosi, in Johannesburg, has concocted a cacophonous blend of shows with pimped-out American rides, international sounds and African music; live events and posh parties; cell phone ringtones and text-message pitches; and radio programming.Lots more is on the way, he vows: MTV sibling Nickelodeon (both are owned by Viacom ) could be in Africa by year's end."There is a huge economy out there that no one is counting," he says.
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In Nigeria 77 terrestrial TV stations now operate, with more on the way, boasting international programming, Nigeria's own "Nollywood" fare and African music videos shot by directors trained by Okosi's staff at MTV.

Wireless and deregulation have connected Africans as never before.
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By focusing on Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa and the linked economies of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, Okosi hits the biggest media markets, 40% of Africa's population and 50% of its GDP.
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In December 2005 Okosi organized an all-night dance party in Luanda, Angola, a country just out of civil war that's now in the middle of an oil boom.Nokia sponsored the event, which cost $60 a ticket, or 16 days of wages for an average Angolan; 4,500 people attended, and 2,000 had to be turned away.MTV filmed the sold-out bash for broadcast and created radio features, phone messages and other brand-building plays around the party.

"The buildings in Luanda are crumbling, but I also see the satellite dishes on the sides," says Okosi, who danced till dawn.The shiny dish on each shanty serves a potential customer, maybe a budding video star or a fledgling entrepreneur.Okosi trolls for talent almost anywhere; he visited one Ghanaian singer in the man's bedroom."Sometimes a musician's studio is also his bedroom," he says.
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Okosi has shown interviews with kids confronting Tony Blair and talking with Nelson Mandela about the aids epidemic.
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Alex Okosi grew up in Enugu, a small town in eastern Nigeria where his father was a civil servant.By the time he was 12, three older brothers had immigrated to the U.S. Shortly before Alex and his parents were to visit one of them in Florida, another brother in Nigeria, Emeka, took him aside and whispered: "You're not coming back."His mom and dad yielded, returning to Nigeria without him.He barely spoke to them for nine years; now his mom, still in Nigeria, uses her cell phone to text him almost daily.
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That first month "was the hardest month of my life," Okosi says.He graduated with high honors in 1994.
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In 1998 Okosi landed a full-time job in New York, and a year later he moved to Los Angeles, where he sold Viacom channels Country Music Television and TV Land to cable operators in Idaho, Wyoming and Nevada.

In 2000, at age 26, Okosi returned to Nigeria and the town he had left as a boy, seeing Emeka, the brother who had whispered to him that he would stay in America, for the first time in 14 years.They cried in each other's arms."I know Africans who leave and forget everything," he says."I remembered.I still spoke Ibo, which made my parents really happy."

Okosi returned to Los Angeles more intent on taking MTV to Africa, and in 2002 he found a like-minded ally and mentor when Freston introduced him to Bill Roedy, MTV's international chief.Okosi began e-mailing Roedy about the need for MTV to be in Africa--and to Okosi's surprise, Roedy responded with encouraging tips on which ideas made sense (developing blocks of branded content to sell to terrestrial broadcasters) and which ones didn't (creating a network solely for Nigeria).
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In May 2003 Okosi transferred to London to report to Roedy and begin the groundwork for an Africa launch.
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"I ate the food, and I understood the jokes," Okosi says.
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TV penetration was up 300% from 1995 to 2004; ad spending was at $120 million--not huge, but it was growing 15% a year," Okosi says."If you had any entrepreneurial spirit at all, you'd say, 'Okay, I can do this.'"

At $300 for a 30-second ad, the money wasn't great, but Roedy notes that he started out in Germany by giving away ads, "and that is now part of a $1 billion [European] business."In early 2004 Okosi and a colleague from MTV Portugal set up MTV Africa's first focus group: 20 college kids on a bench in a sweltering room with a jerry-rigged VCR."They knew all the stars, they'd seen them on bootlegged videos in restaurants, and they had very exacting tastes," Okosi says.
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MTV Base premiered on Feb. 22, 2005, and as the first video aired ("African Queen," by 2Face Idibia), Okosi hosted one party flanked by the brother he had left behind in Nigeria, Emeka.