From a $200 Jewellery Business to 60 Million TV Viewers: Who Says a Jack of All Trades Can’t Master Them All?

Seyi Banigbe started a jewellery business with less than $200. Fourteen years later, that business has more than 30 staff across its retail locations, while her media company says its television programmes reach more than 60 million viewers every quarter.

In an interview with Business Insider Africa, Seyi spoke about building businesses across media, jewellery, legal services and facility management, and what she has learnt about entrepreneurship, leadership and the Nigerian market.

Her story is less about sticking to one industry and more about giving ideas room.

Seyi trained as a lawyer, worked in tax and corporate advisory at PwC, specialised in oil and gas law, and eventually moved into entrepreneurship. Her businesses now span sectors that, on the surface, have very little to do with one another.

Her explanation is simple: she does not believe she was given only one talent to use.

“I believe no one is gifted at just one thing,” she said, explaining that her desire to use her ideas pushed her from corporate Nigeria into full-time entrepreneurship. When she becomes deeply interested in a problem, she says, she focuses on building a system that can solve it sustainably and profitably.

That approach has produced businesses that look very different but share one thing: Seyi wants them to solve problems, reach people and keep working beyond her personal presence.

How Did a Lawyer end up Duilding Businesses in Media and Jewellery?

Seyi spent more than a decade in corporate Nigeria before making the jump into entrepreneurship. Her legal career gave her experience in tax, corporate advisory and oil and gas law, but the entrepreneurial side of her never disappeared.

Eventually, she took the risk of leaving the corporate path and pursuing her own ideas.

One of those ideas became Bland2Glam, the jewellery business she says she started in 2012 with less than $200.

At the time, the idea attracted plenty of doubt. Seyi recalls being asked who would buy jewellery in Nigeria and whether a proper business could really be built around selling it.

Fourteen years later, Bland2Glam has grown into an award-winning jewellery brand with retail locations in Nigeria and more than 30 staff, according to Seyi.

The lesson she draws from that journey is bigger than jewellery. She says Nigerians like good, affordable fashion and value local brands that combine quality, competitive prices and convenience.

She has also learned that convenience does not always mean online shopping.

Although Bland2Glam has an online presence, Seyi says customers still like physical stores because they want to see, touch and feel jewellery before buying it. The business also benefits from Nigeria’s strong gifting culture and consumers’ appetite for new arrivals.

What Turned Inspirational Television Into A Business Reaching Millions?

Seyi’s media journey followed a different route.

Through Nibo & Tac Media, she produces television programmes built around work, business, success, personal growth and education. Shows including Binging with GameChangers, Cooking with GameChangers and Chatter that Counts were created to educate and inspire audiences, then syndicated across major cable and terrestrial television platforms in Nigeria.

The audience became commercially valuable.

Seyi says the programmes now reach more than 60 million viewers quarterly through syndicated television. That scale also created something advertisers wanted: a large audience around content that could carry brand messages.

But reach alone is not what has kept the business moving.

The shows combine education with entertainment, supported by high production quality. Seyi describes the ability to leave viewers smiling while they learn as one of Nibo & Tac Media’s strengths.

That combination has also taken the business beyond Nigeria. Seyi has taken Cooking with GameChangers to Ghana, extending the programme’s mentorship, inspiration and business education model to another African market.

She points to the global reaction to Black Panther and its effect on perceptions of African identity as an example of media’s power. For her, a young African seeing another person with similar limitations succeed can provide encouragement to keep pursuing a goal despite difficult circumstances.

How Is Seyi Managing Several Businesses Without Letting Them Fall Apart?

Running several companies while raising a family requires more than ambition, and Seyi says structure has been essential.

She relies on daily, weekly, monthly, biannual and yearly goals for herself and her teams. Delegation is important, but she does not see it as disappearing from the work.

She says she remains responsible for what comes out of her companies and keeps her attention on whether the original vision is being executed.

At Bland2Glam, retail locations operate seven days a week from morning until late evening. Seyi says the business could not meet that demand without strong front-office and back-office structures.

Her media operation has its own demands. Television programmes run throughout the year, while some production periods require teams of nearly 100 people for principal photography.

Seyi says building teams that can keep those operations running without her physical presence has been critical.

Family has also shaped the way she works. When her children were younger, she deliberately reduced travel so she could handle school runs and stay involved in their lives. Now that her daughters are older and in boarding school, she has more flexibility.

For Seyi, success is not simply about the size of a company.

She defines it as meeting the basic needs of herself and her family, refusing to leave ideas unused because of fear, and doing work that leaves the world better than she found it.

That philosophy explains where she wants to go next.

Her bigger vision is to make transformational mentorship more accessible across Africa. She believes Africans must build Africa by sharing their stories and directly mentoring people who are still climbing.

Through her media platforms and mentorship plans, she wants to create an inspiration hub where people can learn from successful Africans, connect with experts in their own regions and move faster in business and careers.

The businesses may sit in different industries, but Seyi sees them as parts of the same mission: turning ideas into systems, systems into businesses, and businesses into opportunities for other people.

After building across law, jewellery, media and other ventures, she appears to have no intention of choosing just one lane.