Jason Njoku
Date of birth/age : December 11th, 1980
Place of birth nation, state/province: Deptford, South-East London
National: British-Nigerian
Profession: Entrepreneur
Achievement: Founder, ‘Netflix of Africa ’,Nollywood’s largest distribution platform ‘iROKO
Awards: He was named CNBC All Africa Business Awards Young Leader of the Year for West Africa on the 29th August 2013. This came one short year after Forbes Africa cited him as one of the “Ten Young African Millionaires to Watch” in July 2012 He was also listed among the Fast Company’s Top 1000 Most Creative People in Business in January 2014, and he won the Future Awards Africa as Entrepreneur of the Year. Njoku has a City People Movie Special Recognition Award to his name and an Outstanding Industry Achievement Award at the West Africa Mobile Awards.
Contribution to society: .
He founded Hulu orNetflix for Africa where people could get online streaming platform to access quality Nollywood films. In 2013, Jason Njoku and his friend Bastian Gotter launched a $2 million dollar investment vehicle. In August of the same year, they started investing. They invested in a Lagos based internet start-up called Spark, some 11 companies including a drinks distribution company called drinks.ng, a real-estate and property online letting agency called ToLet.com.ng, and a hotel room booking site, hotels.ng, which has gone on to raise $1.2 million in VC investment from EchoVC Pan-Africa Fund and Omidyar Network.
Outstanding performance: Executive Chairman of BlackBet, Executive Chairman of Betty Bingo
Net worth: $40million as at 2018
Siblings (family tree):Wife(Mary Remmy Njoku)
Children : 3 children :Obi, Nnenna and Nwakaego
Married: Yes
Clan/tribe :Igbo
Background
Jason Chukwuma Njoku was born on December 11th, 1980 in Deptford, South-East London to Nigerian parents from Imo state, although he was raised by his mother After his early education in the United Kingdom, he moved back to Nigeria at the age of 12, where he schooled for about three years. At the age of 15, he returned to the United Kingdom for his college education at the University of Manchester. He read Chemistry and graduated in 2005.He said in a tweet that no less than 10 businesses crumbled in his hands during this time. When nothing seemed to be working out as planned, Njoku returned to the United Kingdom, ready to give up on his entrepreneurial dreams. This feeling only started until he saw another problem that needed to be solved.His mother wanted to watch Nollywood movies there in the United Kingdom but could not get any online streaming platform to access quality Nollywood films. It was there that the idea of creating a platform to help distributr nollywood movies sprung.The idea is to create Nollywood content on an online platform where viewers across Africa and diaspora could acess them. Njoku then wondered why no one had ever thought of producing a Hulu or a Netflix for Africa, since there appeared to be people who had same issues. With zero funds of his own, he returned to Nigeria after convincing his friend Bastian Gotter to invest his life savings in the idea. They struck a deal with YouTube Germany to be their official Channel partner in 2010, and launched Nollywood Love, a YouTube channel. The channel became profitable within two months of launch.Working from his home residence in Festac, Lagos, Njoku started purchasing online licenses of Nollywood movies, using the capital his friend had invested. Iroko Partners was born from NollywoodLove. Eventually, the team secured an initial investment fund amounting to $3 million from Tiger Global company in 2010, and another $22 million from international VCs including Investment AB Kinnevik and RISE Capital. In 2013, Jason Njoku and his friend Bastian Gotter launched a $2 million dollar investment vehicle. In August of the same year, they started investing. They invested in a Lagos based internet start-up called Spark, some 11 companies including a drinks distribution company called drinks.ng, a real-estate and property online letting agency called ToLet.com.ng, and a hotel room booking site, hotels.ng, which has gone on to raise $1.2 million in VC investment from EchoVC Pan-Africa Fund and Omidyar Network. By 2015, Njoku decided it was time to shift focus to having TV series run on an Android mobile app rather than other streaming means. This has proven to be the most profitable decision for the company, and iROKOtv has now grown to the capacity of a catalogue of over 5000 movies with offices in Lagos, New York and London. After failing many times,Jason Njoku finally built a multimillion dolla company named Netflix of Africa Jason is also the founder of Rok studios, a leading African film and television studio and production house based in Lagos. This business was incubated by IROKO partners, and has developed, produced and financed film and TV series, as well as an Animation studio called ROK Animation studios. ROK TV is on DStv and GOtv platforms, and reaches no less than 15 million subscribers in Africa, and another 12.5 million viewers on SKY in the UK. Njoku serves as Executive Chairman of BlackBet, a business which was launched in Nigeria in 2017. He also the Executive Chairman of Betty Bingo. Njokus wife is Mary Remmy Njoku. She is a Nollywood actor and CEO of ROK Studios.They got married on August 18,2012 at the Golden Tulip Hotel, Festac , Lagos.They are blessed with three children, one boy and two girls.
“Everyone thought I was mad. I had failed enough and if you fail that much, it gets to a point where it literally doesn’t matter anymore,” Njoku said.
Source:
1.Ruth Okwumbu-Imafidon (2022). After failing many times-jason njoku finally built a multimillion-dollar compan
2.Ideaslane Team (2022). Jason njoku everything you should-know about him