GreenHunters CEO and Football4Life founder Benson Chukwueke has been a marketer throughout his career. His main product, his brand, is inspiration, and he's on a mission to support young African footballers and to help them succeed in their football career.
Chukwueke was about to enter the studio at Dague Broadcasting Network (DBN TV) Lekki Phase1 in Lagos, when he stopped, bowed his head and closed his eyes. “I take a good portion of my day to pray, and I pray extra in the spirit, speaking in tongues before I go on for any appointment,” Chukwueke told iCube. “I’ve got to do something so different, something supernatural to get attention of the world and to inspire young people - it's got to be by the Holy Spirit."
Chukwueke, wearing a blue Ralph check shirt and a carton colour Don Green pair of chinos trousers and his trademark Nike face cap 🧢, walked into DBN studio to a live interview on Sports Extravaganza - a Lunch hour live TV show that allows audience telephone call in. "For the first time, I had to explain on a live television program what Football4Life project is all about and how it offers a lifeline for young people and their families in Africa."
"To my surprise, I had so many people calling in to encourage me and to ask how they can be part of the project. And the calls wouldn't stop coming until the presenter had to end the show. It was a 30 minutes slot that changed everything for me. " Chukwueke recalled.
It was the start of his second annual football scouting program Masterclass Talent Exhibition (MTE) in July 2017. Chukwueke and his team had worked with Kingchucky Solarsystem who sponsored the program to a tune of NGN5 million. The funds covered rentage of a DBI private stadium in Oshodi, hotel accommodation for participants and officials, purchase of kits, balls, payment of referees...
The program cost included provisions for DBN TV coverage, the appearances of Player's Agent, Innocent Okereke and some national team coaches: Samson Siasia, Emmanuel Amunike who came to watch the games on different days for possible selection of players.
And in the next few years, He worked with Chika Johnson and got him a club in China, Chisom Egbuchulam signed for BK Hackin in Sweden and Christopher Martins joined Young Boy FC in Switzerland, Walid Mohammed joined Al'Ain in United Arab Emirates and Casimir Njoku got a scholarship with FC Pirates Kansas University (NCAA) in the USA...
That’s the peculiar thing about providing solution. People will pay to get it, and they always want more. Oftentimes each day, his mailbox, telegram and WhatsApp will be full of messages from footballers and their guardian making inquiries or asking for help. His mobile phone will not stop singing Justin Bieber's "Am Available" which is his unique ringtone now familiar to those around him.
Throughout his life, Chukwueke has been a visionary, able to dip into a seemingly bottomless well and come up with ideas, sometimes, distruptive solutions you can't imagine.
For years, this has been his business, since he stopped working as the marketing manager for an information technology firm Nigeria Exchange Dot Com (www.ngex.com) and decided to follow his heart calling in 2007. A business nobody seems to understand, not even his wife, may have become his mission.
He has launched two very successful social media blogs "Inspire Football" and "CheerOnNigeria" to help put his message out there and inform his audience about his programs and events. Over the years,, he has grown subscribers and followers running into several millions in his Football4life community.
His vision has always been to touch lives, fulfill dreams and to make the world a happier place through football possibilities.
Football a popular sport in Nigeria, is majorly played by children from difficult background who are left to play on the streets and overtime develop incredible football skills in the dusty patchy roads of life.
This same football has become a lifeline for some of them, taking them and their families out of poverty. That's one of those things Football4Life project is about. Helping young African footballers find opportunity to jump start a professional football career and guiding them all the way to a successful flight.
This is an abridged story of Benson Chukwueke's mission with his job as a Sports marketing professional in Nigeria.
You can be part of Football4life project. Feel free to contact him: +2348098772556
