Tell Africa is a leading media production company based in Lagos.
Our mission is to tell compelling and Inspiring stories about Africa.
The video stories Tell Africa team creates are focused on Africa for a wide range of audiences, inspiring, emotionally compelling, and empowering content, both in short digital form and long TV form on Africa.
How it all Started
Tell Africa’s founder, Obaji Akpet, has always been passionate about storytelling. But his return from self-exile inspired him to have a clearer vision of what is now Tell Africa.
It all began in early 2017 when he was forced to flee his hometown in southern Nigeria after reporting a story that exposed corruption. At the time, he had begun his career as a journalist with a local newspaper. After fleeing for safety, with little in his pocket, he began travelling incognito around Africa by road, taking the routes less travelled to ensure he couldn’t be tracked. Throughout his journey, he felt deeply inspired to tell the stories of the people and places he encountered. He wanted to tell them through films, but there was a problem: “I had no resources — no money, no camera equipment, no internet, nothing. But I had a burning idea to start my documentary filmmaking venture to tell Africa’s unique stories to the world in a way Africans themselves have not independently had the leverage to tell,” Obaji quoted by Francisco-based MasterClass.com.
“What good is an idea if I have no resources?” he thought.
Later that same year, he returned to Lagos, Nigeria, where he took up roles, and applied for the Tony Elumelu Foundation grant, eventually saving enough money to invest in online filmmaking knowledge and eventually starting the company known today as Tell Africa.