How a tweet led Admire to meeting NBS TV boss Kin Kariisa

Admire Nabanza is still trying to believe his luck. Last week, a dream he never dared hope would ever come true did: meeting the Next Media Services CEO Kin Kariisa.

In that meeting, Nabanza got a chance to demonstrate to one of Uganda’s most sought out media and business masterminds his creative ideas that he had been developing for many months.

The motion graphics designer who just completed Makerere University had been trying to showcase his talent and being turned away before to his shock, Next Media Services opened its gates to him to show what he can do.

The Buyaga village native from Mpumudde sub-county, Lyantonde district had been nursing a dream of making it big in Kampala since he was a child from a humble family. Born in a family of six, Nabanza spent his childhood walking many kilometres to school through bush and in the hot sun.

Nabanza knew that his parents income was limited went out early to try and supplement the family income of cattle keeping by selling merchandise on the roadside in his free time. Although this hustle brought in some money, his parents never let Nabanza and his younger sister forget school was the most important project in their lives.

In fact Nabanza did not get a chance to have a real look at television and modern media until his secondary school years, when his parents scrapped together their savings to send him to study in Kampala.

He remembers, “When I first came to this city – Kampala – everything around me, obviously, was new! The huge billboards with all sorts of eye-catching commercial adverts (I at the time thought they were mere big screens) particularly sparked my curiosity. The one question I kept asking myself was, “how are all these designed to come up with such beautiful adverts?”

When I got done with my high school and in my vacation, I began following up and researching about especially motion design. Even the high cost of the required equipment could not stop me – the love I had attained for the craft was approximating towards infinity!”

As he contemplated what he would study at Makerere University, Nabanza recalled, “One day, as I was watching one NBS Television program, a commercial break came up, and an amazing advert, I can’t even remember which one exactly played. It really would not allow me to set my eyes off the screen! It made up my mind – it was motion graphics that I wanted to study at campus, and I have never regretted the fact that I used it as the field of emphasis to choose the course that I have now done and completed at the university.”

The poor boy from Lyantonde who could not afford a laptop of his own found himself using the very computers he never thought he would have a chance to “play with.”

This is when he started develop the idea that he should not wait to graduate to show the media houses in Kampala what he could create.

“Every time I had no lectures, I made it my mandate to pass by a media house, where I took minutes on end to just stand and stare at their respective gates. I would sometimes attempt to go in but got blocked from accessing their premises each time.

Just like anyone yearning to make their dream come true, I persisted and kept trying until this one unforgettable day when, while returning from town and heading to my hostel, I decided to drop by the Next Media Park. For some reason, I was finally let in! A dream come true, I tell you, and that night, believe me, if I tell you I slept with such great motivation that gave me even more morale to keep on pushing - my main aim then was, and until I realize it, remains to work with them one day.

I started creating different motion designs to perfect my art from that day onwards. Practice indeed makes perfect, and, combined with the 4 Ps of Prayer, Practice, Persistence and Penitence, and being proactive, I created social media platforms to showcase my art.

https://twitter.com/Iam_Admire/status/1451540205735976967?s=20&t=JvaPPUqVgJ3USbopVZrjWw

Twitter is what I gave my greatest focus, and every time I posted my works (which were always NBS Television or Next Media-leaning ideas), I ensured I tagged key people at the media house. I did this for quite a long time with hardly any attention garnered, until one day, another unforgettable one in my life, a special person DM’d me on Twitter appreciating my work. This person was their then Head of Brand and Communications, now Head of Corporate Affairs, Desire Derekford Mugumisa.

I cannot state enough how happy I was, especially seeing as he did not stop at only appreciating my work, but also invited me to what I thought was a visit of the Park like I had seen so many others visit before. I could not believe my luck, so much so that I even developed goosebumps all over my body, my heartbeat suddenly a bit faster with joy all over me, oh!

To my complete astonishment, when I made it to the Next Media Park for my “visit”, this time as a guest with an appointment even, I found that Desire had also prepared for me the opportunity to meet the Next Media Services Group CEO, Kin Kariisa! If making it into the Next Media Park was a dream come true, I to this day haven’t found words to describe this.

I sat in Kin’s scenic spacious office with Kin and Desire, where we actually had conversations about my school, inspirations, dreams and more, all this while with me pinching myself to make sure I was not just dreaming. At the end of the meeting, Kin urged me to complete my final year and asked Desire to follow up and arrange a possible Apprenticeship opportunity whenever I am ready.

Today, I send my appreciation to Desire Derekford Mugumisa for that opportunity and his love and support for creative minds such as mine. I am looking forward to my Apprenticeship when it comes through, and I look to make the most of it.

To everyone else who took the time to read this story of mine, I really hope it inspired you somehow!”