Blogging is big business in Nigeria. In fact, more than 15 million Nigerians use social media, according to global research firm We are social. And women in Nigeria have seemingly taken over the industry. The woman at the top is Linda Ikeji, who has evolved from a gossip blogger to a billionaire media mogul — in naira, that is.
An entrepreneur, former model and philanthropist, Ikeji started her blog in 2006. At first she used the blog to discuss personal thoughts and then she started covering celebrity gossip. The blog took off.
“I started blogging in 2006, in 2007 I started drawing in the readers when I started doing gossip, and it was different. People just love gossip, and the blog became quite popular. I was running a modeling agency and doing events, but I just loved blogging,” she told the BBC. “Then people started paying me to put things in my blog — this was around 2010.”
Ikeji’s blog earns her $65,000 every month, Small Starter reported.
She’s regarded as the highest-paid and richest blogger in Africa.
Her net worth was estimated at $40 million USD based on 2016 and 2017 earnings. That would make her a naira billionaire worth 1.442 billion naira.
But the blog isn’t only gossip. “In addition to income, Linda has used her blog as a platform to effect social change. In 2011, she brought attention to the case of a teenage Nigerian girl who had been held in a maximum prison for nearly four years without trial for stealing a mobile phone. With the support of some her blog’s most avid followers, the young girl was released from prison and returned to her parents,” Small Starter reported.
“From the ads on her blog, it’s pretty obvious that the advertisers are targeting the overwhelmingly young demographic who constitute the blog’s loyal following. 18 to 44 year-olds make up 85 percent of the blog’s audience, with the 25-34 age bracket alone making up more than 50 percent,” Small Starter reported.
The blog is more than a hit–it’s a sensation.
“According to Google Ad Planner, her blog receives up to 90,000 unique visitors from across the world daily. Collectively, her fans view the blog up to 250,000 times a day,” Small Starter reported.
And she had used her funds to open up a TV production studio, where she films several shows-her own and others as well. “I want to do this for the rest of my life,” she told CNN. “We want to create content that Nigeria has never seen before.” This includes her gossip show as well as other entertainment shows, political shows, reality shows, and even a satire show. “I was making a lot of money as a blogger and I thought what’s stopping me from not only having a TV channel, but owning one.”
Ikeji, a former model, opened her online TV network, Linda Ikeji TV, on August 22, 2016. She also ventured into online radio broadcasting. The station is operated from the Linda Ikeji Media Office. And, as her blog got more and more popular, she launched a social networking platform named Linda Ikeji Social on the domain name LindaIkejiSocial.com.
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