Leaders & Company Limited: A Brief

LEADERS & COMPANY LTD (Registration No. 214 307) began trading in January 1995. Its flagship newspaper, THISDAY, was first published on January 22 1995. Despite entering a crowded newspaper market, which was then home to more than 25 serious national dailies, 10 national newsmagazines and several periodicals, THISDAY quickly established itself as Nigeria's premier newspaper of record. In its first year of publication, it won the prestigious Newspaper of the Year award, which it retained for three consecutive years. Its editors and writers have also won several national and international awards for news coverage, presentation and robust commentary.

THISDAY was the first newspaper in Nigeria to introduce full-colour printing from its own presses in 1997. It is the first and only newspaper in Nigeria to use satellite-enabled networks to print simultaneously at two printing plants, in Lagos and a new multi-million dollar complex in Abuja, ensuring that the newspaper offers the same breaking news, on the same day, at the same time, across the vast country.

Today, THISDAY has some 700 staff members in 38 offices across Nigeria. It also maintains a bureau in Washington, DC from which it provides news on Africa to a variety of global news organisations and agencies across all platforms from the World Wide Web to radio, television, and cable to satellite. THISDAY has a daily circulation of 100,000 copies and 120,000 on Sundays. In Nigeria, THISDAY has a daily readership of 4 million people. Its newspaper operation has an annual turnover of about N4.5 billion (about US$35 million).

Nduka Obaigbena

THISDAY founding Editor-in-Chief and Chairman, Nduka Obaigbena, attended the prestigious Edo College, Benin City, and the University of Benin where he took an honours degree in Creative Arts. He has attended professional and management courses in Nigeria, the United Kingdom, the United States, and in South Africa at the University of Witswatersrand and the University of Cape Town (Graduate School of Business) for an Advanced Management programme.

He started his journalism career at Nigerian Observer in 1978 as a satirist, writer and cartoonist, and later became co-ordinating Editor of The Dawn monthly magazine. He later left for the UK where he worked with advertising agency NAL and as a media specialist consultant in London.

He had a brief stint with Newsweek Magazine in 1984 as a Special Section Representative before moving over to TIME Magazine in 1984 where he helped in developing the Special Surveys and Country Sections. He was later appointed TIME Magazine Representative for English-speaking sub-Saharan Africa. He developed several Country Sections for TIME Magazine in Nigeria, Kenya, Morocco and Zimbabwe during this time.

He became Editor-in-Chief of THISWEEK magazine in 1987 and in 1991 ran for the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In 1994, he was elected a member of the Constitutional Conference, which drafted the current Nigerian Constitution. He founded LEADERS & COMPANY LTD (THISDAY Newspapers) in 1995.

In 1990, Obaigbena was appointed a member of the Sub-Committee of the Technical Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation for the privatisation of the Nigerian National Shipping Lines, and the commercialisation of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (including the Voice of Nigeria, VON). In 1999.

He was appointed a member of the Delta State Government Think Tank that wrote the blueprint for the economic revitalisation of Delta State (in The Niger Delta) where most of Nigeria's oil is produced. He convened the Nigeria Investment Summit along with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (Programme of Seminars) in 1997 and 1999 in Washington, DC.

He has been a keynote speaker at several national and international for a, including the World Bank and IMF-sponsored Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper Conferences in Dakar, Senegal and Washington DC. In 2002, he was appointed Chairman of Cross Debts Sub-Committee on 20 Federal Government parastatals being prepared for privatisation, including the utility company, Nigerian Electric Power Authority, Benue Cement Company, Gboko, Sokoto Cement Company and the Nigerian Cement Company, Nkalagu among several others. He then worked with the main committee in creating a Cross Debt Matrix for all Federal Government parastatals including the national oil company, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and several oil majors.

Obaigbena, who is married and blessed with seven children, is a keen sportsman and public affairs commentator. He is also publisher of AFRICAN MARKETS magazine - an IMF/WORLD BANK Annual Meetings publication.

THISDAY SOUTH AFRICA

INTRODUCING A MEDIA GIANT THAT COVERS AFRICA FIRST AND THEN THE WORLD

SOME CALL IT THE CRADLE OF HUMANITY. WE CALL IT FRONT PAGE NEWS

THISDAY Newspapers isn't about the political landscape in Europe or America. It isn't about the economic upheavals in South America or the challenges of immigration in Australia. It's about Africa, its people, its problems and above all its potential.

That doesn't mean we don't cover world affairs, just that we report events in the international arena with African eyes and ears and whilst we offer an African perspective on the world, every story, every feature article and every photographic essay is driven by the passionate pursuit of truth, and our opinions pages reflect the balance of reason so you can be sure you're getting insightful and well-researched information.

THISDAY, one of the biggest circulating newspapers in Africa was launched in South Africa on October 7, 2003. It suspended publication on October 25, 2004 and plans a re-launch in January 2005.

A COMMITMENT TO TELL THE AFRICAN STORY WITH INTEGRITY.

Ever since its inception in 1995, THISDAY has fiercely guarded the values of free enterprise, anchored on social justice and democracy. This uncompromising commitment to journalistic integrity has seen the paper grow into a powerful voice in African media often bringing the world the untold stories of the continent.

Today we are major providers of African news to a variety of global news organisations from newspapers to news agencies, from the world-wide web to radio, television, cable and satellite platforms. That is why, day after day, we tell the African story with integrity in the global marketplace.

A LEADER IN MEDIA TECHNOLOGY.

Making sure that breaking news reaches its audience as quickly as possible, THISDAY has been a pioneer in media technology and remains the first newspaper from Sub-Saharan African using satellite enabled networks to provide news to some of the remotest villages, real-time. In order to maintain this leadership in cutting-edge infrastructure, its new South African headquarters in Sandton, Johannesburg is one of the most technologically advanced media centres in the world.

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