Komla Dumor's quest to rule Africa

Komla Dumor has jumped through many hoops in his profession as a broadcaster, once becoming Ghana’s journalist of the year. For many, that would have been the pinnacle of their career, but not so for Komla. His thirst for growth and knowledge has taken him many steps further than many would have thought. Now the host of BBC’s Focus on Africa programme -- Africa’s morning show, as he likes to call it -- Komla says he is meeting up with great professionals who are even better at what they do. Being in the company of such people is just the environment he needs. It has given him the leverage to challenge him to be where he likes to be -- at the top.

For Komla, working with the BBC has “been fun, it’s been exciting, it’s a different kind of experience.” He says: “I’m enjoying working with different kind of technologies. And the approach to [news gathering] is a different kind of approach.”

Komla has always kept in tune with international issues when he was at Joy FM. The transition to a more news-driven organization versus his past which was “more personality driven” has not been that difficult for him. “Having great professionals whom you go to whenever you have a challenge in a region that you don’t know much about makes it easier to settle in,” he says. The BBC’s great support system allows him easy access to information and resources from professionals who are experts in news gathering and transmission. “I get to work with international staff: Africans and non-Africans, but everyone is committed to Africa.”

Coming back home to cover the Ghana’s independence celebrations took a lot more out of him than he expected. “ But it was exciting, doing non-stop reporting for 72hours,” Komla told JIVE. Television crews and other technical people were sent to cover various aspects of the event for the BBC – people Komla was not even aware had been sent down, until he met them here in Accra. “Prior to the day of event, Ghana@50 actually was leading the BBC News for radio and on the day of the event, Ghana@50 was on The World Today, and a combination of Focus on Africa and Network Africa… Obviously because they have a large Ghanaian audience tuned in every week in Ghana. Plus Ghana holds a special place in Africa, being the first reference point in Africa.”

For 72-hours, Komla presented programmes and interviewed many people as part of the BBC’s coverage of the independence celebrations. He also launched the BBC’s News Maker competition here in Ghana.

Komla has been working at BBC, “always learning something new”, since August 2006. He works with many compatriots there and he says the internal jokes among the Ghanaians there continually bring him joy and make him feel as if he were on his own turf. “Doing interviews for three hours and having the producer edit it into 3mins and still capturing the essence of the show is one of the things that amaze me,” he says. “It’s all fine, but sometimes, you just miss a bowl of banku and okro. I miss my people: I miss interacting with the Ghanaian people. But it’s a professional decision I made… I want to showcase my talent on a different platform and perhaps acquire some skills to make me a better professional. If we see other Ghanaians doing well internationally, it inspires the younger generation. And that’s what I hope to do. I haven’t reached where I want to in life; I’ve not succeeded enough to feel that I’ve made it. I’m still learning and going on and hope that God is kind enough to show me the way.”

Later this year, Komla will be overseeing the BBC Radio awards later in Kenya. As we speak, it seems Komla needs a nap. “We started broadcasting on the morning of March 5th continued non stop through the fire works, through the night, into the next morning, off to the independence square, still no rest and finished at 7pm March 8,” he said, through a yawn. That’s a lot of work -- even for the boss player.