‘We Will Continue to Introduce Innovative Products’

He remains outstanding being the first Nigerian to head the leading PAY-TV firm in the country. In this interview with IT & TELECOM DIGEST, MR JOHN UGBE, the newly appointed Managing Director of MultiChoice Nigeria speaks on the company’s giant strides and moves to develop local content in the country. Excerpts:

Question: First of all, congratulations on your appointment as the first Nigerian Managing Director of MultiChoice Nigeria. When you are given a task like this, those who gave you the task are looking at figures; how would you make sure that the figures you are going to have for the next financial year are such that those who gave you the responsibility would be happy? What strategies do you have in place?
Answer: The first thing I will say is about our people; I will say I am very lucky to be in a company that has some of the best people around. I think the important thing is how we then harness the resources that we have. And I think that is where our focus is. We have the right people, we have the right technology and we have the right product. So we just need to make sure that these can work in sync. While doing that, we have a responsibility to our society and stakeholders. It’s a tough job but I think what makes it easy is the team I have to work with. We do have quite a number of responsibilities but I am quite sure that as a team, we will meet those responsibilities.

Talking about team, are you looking to broaden the team?
Well, as a company, we are always growing. We have not just our internal team of staff but we also have a big supply chain which we have helped Nigerian entrepreneurs to start up and these people work very closely with us. So if you look at it very critically, you will see that we have a massive team nationwide. And we will continue to look for ways to grow the business and part of doing this is growing the people, ensuring that our customer service is superior to anyone you can find around here and ensuring that the standard’s in tune with what is happening in the developed countries of the world. Whereas people look at the challenges in the local market, we take them as opportunities. We don’t lose sight of the fact that our services here must be the same as in the developed parts of the world.

TV viewing in Nigeria is not really at its peak because of a lot of challenges; social, political and so on. For a premium service provider like you, you want to do something that is a little bit different from what is in the mainstream, people are already used to your programmes, is there something new to add pep to what you are currently offering?
We have always done new things. We introduced the first PVR decoder to the market, which allows you to record your own content. Whether you are busy or stuck in traffic, you can record and watch when you get home. We also introduced the mobile TV, which took into consideration the local environment. So, we now have a product that allows you to watch TV while sitting in your car or balcony or in your office and get in tune with happenings around the world. So, as a company, we continuously innovate. We have a new DSTV mobile walker which is a personal screen you can take with you anywhere. It is like taking your TV anywhere you go.  We are now putting your TV into your pocket. There are many more that we will continue to do to excite our customers.

Your DSTV Mobile is presently running on MTN and Globacom platform, are you thinking of partnering with other operators in the country to expand this service?
Definitely! We started with just one operator and later, the second operator. As time goes on, based on the need of the service, we will expand to other networks. We have had that platform running for some time now. And what we have done is to even become more innovative. So, we now have a USB which you can plug to your laptop and watch TV on your laptop. We also have the Drifta decoder, which is just a small box which you can put in your pocket and you can connect it to your iPad, your tablet  and start watching TV wherever you are.

You have the free to air and you have the premium service which are based on subscription, why would you think that somebody that ordinarily cannot afford your service should make sure that he gets your service rather than being contented with free to air?
Well, I think it is the content. We continuously innovate and create content. So, we believe it’s not just normal TV in a closed way; no. It is 90 channels we bring to you right on your TV, some in high definition, which gives you the best viewing quality anywhere in the world. We also bring different services that allow you to record, to schedule your programming. And not only that, we then put our Parental Control on top of all these. We have given back the power to parents. So, if you are not at home and there is a certain programme you don’t want your children to have access to, I think we are one of the few companies who give you that control on what happens even in your absence from home. So, those are all the compelling reasons we have put in place, which we believe is a big differentiator between our service and other services.

It has been observed that whenever you are doing any promo, people hoard your decoders only for them to sell to people at higher price. How do you intend to address the issue of touting in your business?          
Unfortunately, the idea of touting exists in any industry. But how do we approach it? We have created a large supply chain, which we are still expanding. We have even taken touts off the street, trained them and accommodated them into the supply chain. It is not something we are going to stop. Rather than being punitive, we are trying to assist in rehabilitation and some of them are now doing good businesses. In terms of hoarding of our products, we are controlling it. We understand the demands and we have devised ways to ensure that our products get to the customers.

Talking about content, are there any plans to get an academy whether here in Nigeria or somewhere in Africa, that actually encourages local content production?
What we have always done is training. I think in the first quarter of 2012 we are going to have another one. We have interventions that we have done over time and even way back when we had movies called New Directions, shot by MNET, people were trained and the entire movies were funded to help increase the quality of movies coming out of Africa. These are all the initiatives. Among others, we keep doing script writing training, to teach right from the foundations of the script. So, we’ve done much in production training, and we have partnered with even the NTA for production training. So, we are not only sitting on the pay-TV initiative, we are partnering with the entire industry to offer training and lots of empowerment programmes. We just came back from a graduation ceremony where we sponsored sports administrators for management training. We facilitated a partnership between a business school in South Africa and University of Nigeria, Nsukka. So, not only were we able to forge a relationship between these schools, but also develop capacity in sports administrators. We can all see what is happening with our sports these days. This is a very big initiative for the company and we have 24 graduates out of 28 people who attended the training, which was fully funded and supported by MultiChoice. Everything in what you can call an academy we have brought into this initiative.

That sounds like CSR; but can you just give us a total picture of your CSR focus?
In terms of our corporate social responsibility initiatives, we have chosen education as one of the biggest sectors we need to focus on because young people are the future. So, we have resource centres which we have built nationwide. And what do these resource centres do? They take the learning contents out of our bouquets and they expose children to them on Discovery from their classrooms. They not only have to read the maps, but they can see different cultures; they can actually see how the people live from those programmes on Discovery and other channels too. This is what we have done in 21 states; we have over 201 resource centres. From this 2012, we have the plan to add 40 every year. We have always supported the Sickle Cell Foundation, we took it as a pet project of ours and this is among other smaller initiatives. We are also in a position where we continuously evaluate and see what other initiatives we can be part of. When I mentioned the training for the sports administrators, where they have had very sound business management training with the tool for sports administration, we are sure that that contribution will fix some of the problems we are having around our sports today.

One of the issues that people talk about generally is that, oh, this is a foreign company; they come to take our money away. When such comments come to you how do you intend to assuage such feelings?
Well, we tend to explain that if you go to the Corporate Affairs Commission, you will see that we are a Nigerian company. Yes, we do have some foreigners as shareholders but I am sure we are not the only Nigerian company that has foreign shareholding. And this is what our government has actually been pushing for; to get foreign investments into the country. So, I think MultiChoice is one of the companies that have impacted the country. In terms of our operations, we are investing a lot in the local market. In terms of local content, we have the Tinsel Production, which is the first multi-camera production coming out of Nigeria in high definition. That is the first for us and we have got Glo Naija Sings. So, we have a lot of initiatives here in Nigeria. The Nigeria Premier League was put back on TV by Super Sports and at a very big cost to the company. We have gone a step further now by investing in the DSTV Basketball League, not only in putting it on TV, but we also sponsor the league. We recently just acquired two more HD OB vans with a full high definition studio. I think if you go on to DSTV, you will see how Nigerian we are. Most of the contents there are actually Nigerian and I am sure a lot of Nigerians are proud when they travel around Africa these days and people say ‘oga, welcome’. That is because of how the Nigerian contents on DSTV have been able to affect the entire continent.

Let me take you a little bit continent-wide, you must have colleagues in different countries, running what you are running here, do you project that in the next one year or two years, you will be able to sit among your peers and they will be able to say, yes, Nigeria is ahead?
Absolutely! That is our hope. We hope in the next two years or maximum of three years, we will become the leader in Africa. We are always looking to grow the Nigerian market and I think a lot of what we have done has shown our intent to be here. We are a business that is investing for the long term rather than short term. So, there are lots of initiatives we are putting in place. The money we are spending on the Nigerian Premier league today, we cannot hope to reap it, however, it is our belief that local sports in Nigeria and in Africa should be developed and we should not always be arguing about sports in Europe. We have taken the steps to show that we believe the future is here and we have followed up with that believe by investing. So, yes, we hope that our local contents and our local programmes will grow and also as a company, we will grow bigger than every other operation in Africa.

What share of the market does Nigeria hold today in Africa in percentage term?
I think in the rest of Africa, because we tend to regionalise, we have 51 per cent, so that shows our size compared to other African countries. However, South Africa is a big market and it is a market that has been developed over time. So, obviously, we are playing catch-up to them. We do hope to definitely take over that mantle from them.

There are people who think that some of the local films that are put on programmes are actually not up to a standard that DSTV ought to accept. Have you had such complaint?
You know content is something we continuously look at. However, we cannot produce every movie we put on, we have to buy. We have to encourage the local market. So, in as much as some of those movies from Nollywood may not be at the right standard, by buying and acquiring those rights from them, we are providing money which will help them do better contents. Our training programmes and our interactions with these people is also increasing the skills and we believe that the quality of the contents will continue to increase going forward.

What legacy would you like to leave behind, five years, 10 years down the line when you walk out of this place?
Well, I will like to leave the subscribers happy, I will like to leave my stakeholders happy; I will like to make my staff happy and I will like the community within which we do business to be happy. And I will like to make my shareholders happy too because at the end of the day, these are the inputs to our business. Business is people and I think there is that trust by the Nigerian people in the business, so, we have to repay that. I also want to build a company where even when I do leave here, I can look back to the achievements.

Nigerian is switching over to digital broadcasting by the 17th of June 2012 according to the National Broadcasting Commission. How prepared is MultiChoice for that?
Definitely, we are very well prepared. In Africa as a whole, we are one of the pioneers of digital broadcasting. Presently, we have a terrestrial station which is equipped with the latest T2 technology. As a business, we have been in the terrestrial business for the past years and we have kept the trends. At the moment, we want to partner with the government to ensure smooth transition from analogue to digital. We believe we have the capacity to assist with that change.

The Man John Ugbe

He could be aptly described as a man that cut his teeth in the IT world early in life, having also been trained in the engineering field. A solutions-oriented ICT expert and business manager with over 14 years practical experience in all aspects of ICT, John Ugbe is known for his  passion for internet technologies and the web and at the same time, he does not allow this to kill  his zeal for motivating and managing people.

A graduate of Electronics and Computer Engineering from the Federal University of Technology Owerri and holder of an MBA from the University of Liverpool, Mr. Ugbe started his career in 1998 as ICT manager for MultiChoice Nigeria. He later took up employment with M-Web Nigeria, a world class internet solutions company, as IT manager in 2003.

Armed with these first-class experiences and with his display of expertise, in 2006, John was appointed as the pioneer indigenous General Manager for M-Web Nigeria prior to his appointment in similar capacity with iWay Africa. He held this position until his appointment as the first Nigerian Managing Director of MultiChoice Nigeria in November 2011

Born 39 years ago in Cross River State, Nigeria, John is proficient in corporate governance, global best practice considerations and Human Resource standards and he has achieved measurable successes in directing a broad range of corporate technology initiatives to support strategic business objectives.

The soft-spoken John is married to Mrs. Mary Ugbe and likes to spend his leisure reading, networking and pondering over industry based challenges. His marriage is blessed with two children: John and Michael