The National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) has awarded KAFTAN TV the Best Corps Employer for the year 2021.
The award was presented today, Thursday, November 18, at the NYSC Secretariat in Akure, the state capital, during the 2021 NYSC Corps Employers Workshop.
Established in December 2016, King Adebayo Film and Theatre Arts Network Television (KAFTAN TV) is a Nigerian independent 24-hour television channel.
It is operated by KAFTAN TV Ventures, a trading and joint venture company headquartered in Ondo City, Ondo State, with additional offices in Lagos and Abuja.
According to the company, about 1,022 corps members have served in its three stations in Ondo, Abuja and Lagos. In Ondo alone, it said 58 young Nigerians have been retained.
Reacting after receiving the award on behalf of the company, the head of stations, Ondo branch, Mr Stephen Adewale, lauded the recognition, adding that the award was indeed a realisation that people and organisations were observant of the contributions of the TV station.
Mr Stephen said, “We are still a work in progress, so today is not the time a day of celebration. The award however humbled us and made us realise that people and organisations are taking note of the outstanding job that KAFTAN TV is doing.”
He added that, “We’ll keep up the good work”.
Stephen said KAFTAN TV has lifted thousands of youths out of unemployment through its training workshops on broadcasting skills thereby producing high calibre professionals.
He revealed that in December 2016, all the executive members of the company held a one-week retreat with the President of the company at his country home in Ondo.
“This retreat signified the first meeting of the company and in January 2017, series of conferences were held in Ondo,” Stephen said. “It was at these conferences that the objectives and mission statement of KAFTAN TV was birthed”.
KAFTAN TV began broadcasting in September 2019. It started with English language channel on StarTimes, BEN Television, and Lyngsat. Since the organisation launched the English News Channel in 2019, it has been able to reach a wider audience across more than 20 African countries where StarTimes broadcasts, reaching an audience of over 6 million homes with news in business, politics, sports, entertainment and global trends.
Having achieved this milestone in less than a year, the management of KAFTAN TV decided to put the local audience into consideration with the introduction of KAFTAN TV Yoruba and KAFTAN Hausa.
Already, KAFTAN News channel is available on Channel 480 on StarTimes Dish platform and Channel 124 on the Antenna for all StarTimes bouquets.
The Yoruba channel can be viewed on Channel 132 DTT while DTH users will see it on Channel 482. As part of its ongoing investment to propel its television stations to market-leading positions, KAFTAN TV launched its Hausa channel on November 8th, 2021.
The Channel is also running nationwide on Channel 142DTT and 414DTH on the StarTimes platform.
Earlier, while welcoming the employers and other workshop participants, the State Coordinator, ably represented by the NYSC Zonal Inspector for Ondo Zone, Mr. Omotade Olaoluwa stated that the workshop was themed “Optimising the NYSC/ Corps Employers Partnership for National Development in the Context of the New Normal” because it is a new era and both the employers and the NYSC must come up with viable ways of interacting.
The first lecture of the workshop was delivered by Dr. Joshua T.S and in the lecture he titled, “Roles of Stakeholders in the Challenges of Corps Administration: Rejection, Over-utilisation and Evasion of Service,” he said the importance of the NYSC scheme cannot be overemphasised as it continues to be the focal point, outside the school for the training and discipline of the Nigerian youth.
The second lecture was delivered by Pastor Olorunyomi Lawrence. In the lecture he titled “The roles of an ideal corps employer as a catalyst for effective service delivery”, Olorunyomi said interactive forum like this, if regularly put in place will bring out the best in corps members, employers and that NYSC will benefit immensely from same.
