‘Godwin’ singer, Korede Bello, and seasoned actress, Patience Ozokwor, are among the eight new ambassadors just signed on by Globacom. AKEEM LASISI looks at the profiles of the stars that include Wizkid and Odunlade Adekola

It is a swell time for movie stars, Patience Ozokwor, Rekaado Banks, O.C. Ukeje and Odunlade Adekola, who have just been signed on as brand ambassadors of Globacom. They are among the nine new brand apostles to be unveiled soon.

The others are popular musicians – Wizkid, Korede Bello and Hadiza Bllel, who, like Korede, is of the Mavin Music family.

At the same time, the telecoms company has retained 20 of its old ambassadors, making it 29 on the list. It notes that it retained the 19 because of their “outstanding performance”.

They are P-Square, Flavour, D’banj, Bez, Omawumi, Wande Coal and Basketmouth. Others are Burna Boy, Waje, M.I., Sani Denja, Sammy Okposo, Ego Ogbaru, Ini Edo, and Ime Bishop Umoh, Funke Akindele, Helen Paul and Chiwetalu Agu.

The last person is seasoned broadcaster, Bimbo Oloyede.

Since the company came on stream about 12 years ago, its branding policy has largely been built around Nigerian stars, with its management saying it is a way of empowering the entertainment sector and other related ones. Of course, while the relationship with the showbiz community must also have boosted its sales, the ambassadors have earned millions of naira from Glo, while the deals have also been good for their ratings outside.

Our correspondent sought to get details of the deals, especially in terms of the amount of money involved. But its officials contacted declined to disclose such, with one saying, “The deal is surely in millions for each ambassador. But many of them would not really want us to go public with the details.”

Yet, while some say the deals range between N50m and N25m, another source says only too few officials of the company may be able to give accurate figures as the contracts are always sealed at the very highest level.