Chike Maduegbuna is a rare breed of serial entrepreneurs in Nigeria. As the Chief-executive-officer of Afrinolly Creative Hub, he is building a gigantic reputation for using mobile/digital technology to add value while concentrating on engaging youths all over the country. The successful completion of the MTN Y’ello Star that began with the online auditions platform gives credence to why Chike is a rare gem.

According to Chike, “Outside the mobile cutting-edge we brought into the production process, what we have also done with MTN Y’ello Star, is to bring incubation to a discovery process. Ordinarily, it will have just been a discovery process. Instead, we integrated a bespoke training specially designed whereby you have creative entrepreneurship, business of the music and music skills training all coming together. Then we have Henley Business School as our partner focusing on Creative Entrepreneurship. Berklee College Of Music focuses on the business of music and the skills required to become a great musician. 

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Bringing those two together enables us to move from just training – like education from a formal setting into incubation. Now we are working with the artists based on what they have learned and seen. That was the main reason we brought in a genius like Malik Yusef to help them in that incubation process. After the incubation, we will accelerate them and then will launch them into the market. It is a unique continuous process. For us at Afrinolly, our target is not just about the winner or those that came in as runner-up. We are also putting our weight around those not selected for the show.

We have several upcoming artists that auditioned with Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa songs. We have included all these talents in our ecosystem. We are also carrying them along in the creative hub, which differs from the Y’ello Hub.”

Describe the man Chike Maduegbuna?

The shortest thing to say about myself is that I am a creative entrepreneur. As a tech entrepreneur, I am someone who loves working with youths. Anything that involves working with digital/mobile technology and youths, you will find me there. I believe that we can have several value propositions to keep creating music, movies, fashion, and modeling – anything we can leverage with digital/mobile technology, you will find me there. I am involved with working with any creative passion of the youths. Our demography in Nigeria is over 60% of youth, we really cannot think of progress as a country and nation without being passionate about the youth generation. We need to create an enabling environment for them.

At Afrinolly Creative Hub, we enjoy working with youths. We protect their interest and provide an enabling environment for them to work and also enjoy grooming them. All my business life, all my activities have been with youths, and it will continue to be like that.

Follow on Instagram – @chikemaduegbuna @Afrinolly

Words by Sesan Adeniji culled From Afrinolly Creative Hub Magazine: Instagram & Twitter – @sesanadeniji