A’isha Mumuni is the MTN Nigeria Chief Digital Officer (CDO) and a seasoned business executive with over 20 years of experience in the telecoms sector. Mumuni, who was once the General Manager of the Value Added Services of MTN Communications Nigeria, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.

She has attended local and international strategic training programmes, including senior executive education, which has helped in her digital journey.

Before becoming the CDO in 2022, Mumuni was instrumental in the evolution of the Digital Services business in MTN and, by extension, in Nigeria. Her leadership style is characterised by her ability to inspire and motivate her team to achieve their goals. She is known for her strategic thinking, innovative ideas and her ability to adapt to the fast-paced digital environment.

In this interview with ENIOLA DANIEL, she spoke about Family Feud, a family game show being sponsored by MTN, the value it will bring to Nigeria, her leadership role and other issues.

What should viewers be expecting from the new season of Family Feud?

First of all, let me say that Family Feud has always been a no-brainer. It’s been shown all over the world in almost 40 countries and it has a wide acclaim for some cool family stuff. When it came to my desk on whether there would be a Nigerian version, it was a no-brainer. I have three young children and it has been pretty helpful because of the family elements in the show. Have you seen the questions? Easy and very relatable! I sit with my children answering the questions. It’s so much fun.

The first season was a learning curve for MTN and Ultima Studios. In the second season, we are looking out for more intimate family questions that would be asked, diverse of contestants. We got our host right in the first place so we don’t want to change that.

In the second season, we understand our families better; we understand the dynamics and now we’re going to start experimenting with Family Feud for kids. We’ve done one Family Feud for celebrities where we have Denrele Edun and his family and others. So, we can now start experimenting with more.

Also, Family Feud was only on DSTV but it’s now airing on NTA terrestrial. So now it’s more accessible to real indigenous Nigerian families than it was in the first season.

The cash prize for the winner in season one was N2.5 million but with the second season, we’ve increased it to N5 million.

There are prizes for home play too. There’s a prize for a second-place contestant and more. There was an MTN staff version and we are going to plan more staff versions.

MTN has sponsored a lot of shows over the years. What are the factors considered before deciding to sponsor a show?

MTN has sponsored Project Fame, Who Wants to be a Millionaire and others, and now sponsoring Family Feud. The criteria are; to first consider if it’s a project we believe in and if it aligns with our values. MTN always has been about families.
So, Family Feud was a no-brainer. Who wants to be a Millionaire also focused on family and friends, Project Fame.

For Family Feud, I didn’t have to think about it too much. It spoke straight to my family. My children and I sit around and answer questions.

I’m sure that anybody who watches it will do the same thing. The questions are not philosophical or hard. One of our favourite questions ever was ‘when you go to a party and they give you a pack of small chops, what do you eat first? The option that had the highest responses was puff puff.

When I get small chops, puff puffs have always been the first thing I eat. So, Family Feud aligns with our values.

In what ways does sponsoring the show help MTN connect with its target audience?

MTN is in the business of connecting people, connecting families. We haven’t stopped doing the core goal of our business, which is, connecting people. It doesn’t have to be a family; some colleagues come together to form a team to play as a family. Coming together deepens engagements with each other and strengthens relationships and that is what MTN is about.

Many believe that some of the social ills are consequences of a lack of proper training at the family level. In what ways does a show like Family Feud correct such issues?

This is an excellent question and I want you to write it that I said this is an excellent question.

Imagine that you are sitting down with your children, a minimum of 45 minutes every week, watching the game show together, and you are engaging in a fun and safe space. What that does is, that tomorrow when you are not watching the game show, everything will be remembered, your relationship has deepened and it becomes easier to correct any ills. Social ills start at home, in the family, in workplaces.

Family Feud is a tool for building relationships. Once you build a relationship, it becomes easier to correct, nurture, guide, protect and do away with the social ills. My children and I sit together to watch the show and it’s just easier to talk to them. It’s just easier to tell them what and what not to do.

I have a 14-year-old son and you know how boys behave, but we watch the show together and he becomes more open to listening, and that’s what Family Feud brings to the table.

What does the future hold for MTN Family Feud?

We ran Project Fame for 10 years, and Who Wants to be a Millionaire for 13 years. So, we always plan for the long term. There are a lot of things we will be considering; do our customers believe that Family Feud is bringing them closer to MTN? When our customers think of MTN, do they smile because of Family Feud? Do our customers say thank God for MTN that brought Family Feud to us? Those are some of the things that we will be measuring to see whether we will continue. But the plan is for a long-term relationship because it is a great show.

Family Feud has run for over 40 years around the world but I wasn’t paying attention to it before we were approached to sponsor it and everybody that I spoke with about Family Feud was super excited that we were bringing it to Nigeria. We will measure some things, not necessarily financial, and then we will take it from there every year.

While Family Feud is an international franchise, nobody knows Nigerians like Nigerians and Bisola Aiyeola is doing a fantastic job as the host of Family Feud. Sometimes, some people just want to watch Bisola instead of the families because she’s doing a fantastic job – the comedy, the laughter; she just knows Nigerians.
She knows when to make us laugh and when not to. Bisola is our girl. We screened 50 people for the position of host before we arrived at Bisola. At some point, we might get some of the A-list comedians to host for one episode.

How long is a season?

We run DSTV first and it runs for six months while three months on terrestrial. So, in total, we run 52 episodes; that’s one season.

Family Feud is new in Nigeria. So, apart from showing it on TV, what other ways do you intend to make Nigerians aware of it?

We recently started uploading full episodes of Family Feud on YouTube, and apart from the work we are doing with Ultimate Studios, we are advertising and communicating Family Feud as widely as possible. We are sponsoring the English Premier League (EPL). So, it’s about communication and increasing communication.

This is our second season and we are hopeful that by the third or the fourth season, we will be able to do versions in different languages. We are talking to radios and on-air personalities in different regions to communicate it.

It is said that women are better home managers. How do you manage the home along with your work demands and busy schedule?

When women ascribe to themselves special days or special months, they are announcing their differences. I am a woman, but I was trained as an engineer. So, I’ve almost always been the only woman in the room. I was in a meeting in March 2024 in a group of nine and I was the only woman. This is normal as an engineer; it’s the position I often find myself in.

I don’t see myself as a woman. I see myself as a human being who has a job to do, whether the job is as a wife, as a mother, as a boss, as an employer or as an employee. I have a job to do.

And I do it as best as I can. This is how I see it. I have to do this. I have to look after my kids. I have to look after a growing team.

Maybe because I’m an engineer, I didn’t see myself as a woman. I saw myself as a person with a job to do. So, when there’s a challenge in front of me, there’s no running away from it.
There is no hiding. It is a job that I have to do.

You will be sad sometimes, depressed or you might feel lonely, but the fact remains that the job is in front of you; get it done. You will be tired; you will be hungry; you will be angry. The job has not changed. Get it done.