#BN20: A Template for African Excellence

When BellaNaija was started in 2006, it was intended to be a digital archive for the booming ecosystems in Nigeria. From fashion, entertainment, lifestyle and many other cultural industries, it was a period when Nigerians were building, innovating, creating and modernising the conceptual designs of each industry. While the innovations were being documented in Nigeria, they only existed in physical prints, unreachable to the global audience or Nigerians in the diaspora. As the internet was rapidly expanding at the time, BellaNaija was launched to connect Nigerians everywhere digitally and show the world the positivity and excellence coming out of the country, and the continent of Africa.

Over time, BellaNaija transcended from being a cultural archive to a culture shaper; from a culture observer to the culture. Our work began influencing the choices people make, and where they want to appear. BellaNaija expanded beyond Africa and beyond, documenting and supporting African and Black creatives, giving platforms to positive stories coming out of Africa. Every popular Nigerian creative today has received support from BellaNaija. Mai Atafo, Banky W, Tiwa Savage, Veekee James, and many others have been previously platformed by BellaNaija.

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Uche Pedro, founder and CEO of BellaNaija, said, “Before African stories became a global conversation, BellaNaija was creating space for Africans to tell our own stories, in our own voices, and on our own terms. For twenty years, we have had the privilege of documenting the culture, creativity, resilience, ambition, and innovation that continue to define Africa.”

As BellaNaija grew, its work became so expansive that it needed to be properly compartmentalised. So it opened into different arms responsible for various purposes. While each department works closely with one and other, they have individually grown as cultural references and markets.

BellaNaija Weddings

Arguably the most demanded and popular arm of BellaNaija, BellaNaija Weddings was launched in 2013 to document and cater to the booming wedding industry in Nigeria. BN Weddings documented so much that it has become the reference point and inspiration for wedding events in Africa.

Couples want their weddings featured on BellaNaija Weddings; aspiring couples visit BellaNaija Weddings for inspiration, and the platform became the cultural celebration spot for the beauty of Nigerian (African) weddings. You would have heard of the popular phrase, “BellaNaija, e calm down,” famously used in Adekunle Gold’s 2016 song, Ready, which shows how reliant people have become on BN Weddings for inspiration and motivation.

BN Weddings has created sub-content franchises like Diary of a BellaNaija Bridesmaid, The Bride and Her Bestie, The Ever After Series and others, to celebrate love from different storytelling angles and across age groups. The platform has accrued over 7 million followers across its social media platforms, alongside documenting more than 200,000 weddings and becoming a leading source of wedding inspiration in Africa.

BellaNaija Style & Beauty

In the early era of digital media, African fashion was covered from the outside, often exoticised or misread by and for the Western gaze. BellaNaija Style was launched to reinvent that story. Beyond treating African fashion as an industry with supply chains and real economics, it celebrates the different forms of style in Africa.

BellaNaija Style gives extensive coverage to our homegrown fashion calendar, including Lagos Fashion Week, while covering international showcases such as Paris Fashion Week, London Fashion Week, Milan Fashion Week, and others through the African lens. It curates designer features and partnerships that connect local houses to global markets; it has helped position African fashion and its craft as serious exports.

BN Style and Beauty is like a catalogue of African styles and looks for inspiration. BellaNaija Style and Beauty have accrued over 980,000 followers across their social media platforms, reflecting their reach across fashion, beauty, and lifestyle audiences.

BellaNaija Editorial** &** Features

BellaNaija Editorial & Features continue the legacy work of curation and creation that BellaNaija was founded for. BellaNaija Editorial is the central ground for reporting, news and celebration of African excellence across the world, while Features is where in-depth writing and core journalism are done.

Beyond reporting news, Editorial & Features explores long-form writing to engage the passionate community of African readers and lovers of literature. Through Features submissions, BellaNaija has published some of Africa’s most established authors, writers and media professionals in their early years.

The Editorial & Features have created content franchises such as Doing Life With…, How to Tell African Stories, BN Meet The Star, BN Travel, Campus Series, Work and Life in Dubai and Italy, and many others, where we tell stories of Africans in different spheres, different formats, catering to audiences of different ages and groups. From education, sports, economy, digital relations and others, the BN Editorial & Features cover every beat.

The Editorial team covers national, international and cultural events such as the Grammys, the Headies Awards, the AMVCAs, Ojude Oba, the Big Brother Naija and many more. BellaNaija Editorial & Features reach millions of people across its digital network, with over 6 million combined social media followers and 3.9 million active website users, alongside hundreds of millions of views and impressions across its platforms.

The BellaNaija Projects

Beyond telling stories and spotlighting Africa, BellaNaija has championed some of the most impactful projects and campaigns of the century.

BBNWonderland

The first edition of BBNWonderland was launched in 2015, the second edition was held in 2016, and the third edition, BBNWonderland3/BBN3ForTheLoveOfWeddings, was held in 2018. It was created to curate a premium bridal experience that brought BellaNaija Weddings’ online bridal community into a real-life event experience. The campaign celebrated brides-to-be through wedding inspiration, pampering, expert sessions, friendships, vendor exposure, entertainment, proposal stories, and follow-up wedding content.

BN Digital Summit

First launched virtually in 2021, BellaNaija Digital Summit is BellaNaija’s flagship ideas and innovation platform that brings together African experts across media, technology, business, fashion, entertainment and the creative economy. Through thought-provoking conversations, networking, and knowledge sharing, the summit equips current and emerging leaders with the insights, connections, and inspiration to shape Africa’s digital future.

In 2023, the summit held its first physical edition.

StopHPVForHer

A 2025 campaign launched as a foundational public awareness of HPV and its link to cervical cancer among parents and guardians of girls aged 9–14 in Lagos. It was used to counter misinformation and lay the ground for future behaviour change toward HPV vaccination uptake.

HerMoneyHerPower

A 2024, 15-week pilot campaign launched to shift Nigerian public discourse from women’s “empowerment” to women’s “power” by focusing on women’s economic power as a gateway to broader gender equality. The campaign is defined through three pillars: access, voice, and choice. Aimed to spark national conversation, build media and entertainment partnerships, recruit gender equality champions, and generate learnings on norm-shifting tactics. The campaign reached over 1.1 billion social media impressions.

HighTea With BNS/ BNS Women’s Month

High Tea with BellaNaija Style was launched in 2022 as an annual BellaNaija Style Women’s Month campaign. It has grown into a community that convenes women leaders, innovators, creatives and changemakers into a space where conversations spark ideas, and women are celebrated for what they wear and the impact they make. HighTea With BNS has become so impactful that it has collaborated with many organisations, including eHealth Africa and Africa Soft Power.

NextGen Creator House

A 2026 digital workshop for Nigerian creators aged 18 to 25 focusing on sustainable storytelling and creative AI workflows. This physical workshop, in partnership with Google Gemini, gathered creatives in Lagos for an immersive creative experience of learning and creating.

Women in Politics and Governance

A 2023 campaign used to spotlight women contesting and winning in Nigeria’s 2023 general elections, and advocate for greater female participation in politics and governance.

#BNDoGood

At its core, BellaNaija realised that a platform reaching millions of young people every month carries a responsibility, and an opportunity, beyond entertainment. It began folding civic life into its core work rather than treating it as charity on the side.

In 2018, ahead of the 2019 elections, the brand co-founded PVCitizen, a non-partisan push to get millennials and Gen Z registered and voting. It used pop culture, familiar faces and plain-language voter guides to make a dull, intimidating process feel doable.

Through #BNDoGood, the platform gives free reach, editorial space and advisory support to causes it believes in. BellaNaija has collaborated with **Slum2School **to amplify campaigns to build learning centres and bring quality education to underserved communities; the platform has backed youth leadership and civic training across the region with LEAP Africa; supported coding bootcamps that move young women into tech with Django Girls; and supported enterprise and economic skills for secondary students with Junior Achievement Nigeria.

With more than 5,000 brand collaborations on record, and many, many awards, BellaNaija has, through the years, become a place people return to for something that is becoming increasingly rare: positive energy. For two decades, we have told African stories that celebrate excellence, amplify possibility, honour culture, spotlight innovation and remind millions of people that there is always something worth believing in.

As headlines about Africa can often feel overwhelming, BellaNaija has intentionally chosen to make room for joy, hope and inspiration without losing sight of reality. We tell stories about living happily despite the hardships. That commitment has shaped a community that consumes stories and leaves feeling connected and encouraged. As we look ahead, our mission remains to continue telling the stories that make people feel seen, celebrated and inspired, one positive African story at a time.

See you around.

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