Funmilayo Comfort Bamgbala: Creating Space for Women’s Stories, One Conversation at a Time

Funmilayo Comfort Bamgbala has spent much of her career helping people tell stories, share experiences and have conversations that matter. As Programmes Manager at Women Radio 91.7FM, she works across broadcasting, programming and public-interest conversations. Outside the radio station, she is building platforms of her own, including Me and My Girls by Fertitude and Soulfood with OlufunmiJay.

Me and My Girls explores women’s health, relationships and personal experiences. The podcast has reached over three million people and generated more than 200,000 engagements. Through Soulfood with OlufunmiJay, her live conversation platform, she brings people together to share stories, exchange ideas and connect. The platform has welcomed more than 200 attendees.

Beyond the numbers, what stands out to me is the range of ways Funmilayo has chosen to work with stories and create spaces for people to connect. We often talk about storytelling as though it is one thing, but look at these platforms. One is a podcast exploring women’s experiences, another is a live conversation platform, and then there is her work in radio. Different formats, different audiences, but there is something connecting them. We will come back to that.

Funmilayo’s journey into media did not begin with a degree in communications. She studied Economics at Bells University of Technology before going on to train at Citadel Media Academy by City 105.1FM (known at the time as City Media Academy), where she reportedly graduated top of her class. From there, she began building her career in broadcasting as an On-Air Personality at City 105.1FM.

What I find interesting here is that her story did not follow the most obvious route into media. She studied Economics, trained in media and then began building experience in broadcasting. Sometimes, the path into the work we eventually become known for is not a straight line. You learn something, take a step, discover another possibility and keep going.

She later worked in content and creative production at ZavandiTV and Phenom Communications, gaining experience in podcast production, branded content, campaigns and live events. At Women Radio 91.7FM, she moved from programme officer and radio presenter into her current role as programmes manager, taking on greater responsibility for programme planning, editorial coordination, interviews, special broadcasts and advocacy campaigns.

Looking at her career, you can see how one experience has opened the door to another. She has moved from presenting to producing, from creating content to managing programmes, and from working on other people’s projects to building platforms of her own. Each step has added something to her experience. And I think this is worth paying attention to: sometimes, growth is not about abandoning what you have done before. It is about discovering what else that experience makes possible.

And working in media requires more than knowing how to communicate. Sometimes, it means knowing how to handle a difficult conversation.

During a live radio discussion, Funmilayo found herself engaging with an older male analyst whose comments she felt were disconnected from the realities many Nigerians were facing. She had to challenge his position without turning the discussion into a personal confrontation. Rather than making the exchange about herself and the guest, she allowed listeners to question his arguments.

Now, this is an interesting part of the work. You may have a strong opinion about what someone is saying, but you still have to think about the audience, the conversation and your responsibility as the person moderating it. How do you challenge someone without making the conversation about yourself? How do you hold your ground while still giving the audience room to engage? These are not always easy questions, particularly when you are live on air and have to make those decisions in the moment.

Knowing when to challenge a guest and how to do so without losing sight of the bigger picture is part of learning the job. It also shows that communication is not just about what you say. It is about how you handle the space you have been given and what you allow that space to become. In this case, Funmilayo had to balance her responsibility to the audience with the need to keep the conversation productive. That is a different kind of skill from simply being good at speaking.

That interest in creating room for conversations also shows up in Funmilayo’s own projects.

With Me and My Girls by Fertitude, she brings together research, scripting, guest coordination, filming and post-production to explore subjects that affect women’s lives. Soulfood with OlufunmiJay offers a different kind of space, bringing artists, storytellers and thought leaders together for open conversations.

And here is the connection I was talking about earlier. Radio, a podcast and a live conversation platform may look like three different things. But when you look at what Funmilayo is doing with each of them, you begin to see a pattern. She keeps finding ways to create space for stories, particularly those of women, and for conversations that might otherwise not happen. The platforms may be different, but they connect through a shared interest in whose stories get told and how those stories are heard.

I think there is something worth looking at here. It is one thing to work in media because you enjoy communication or content creation. It is another to keep returning to certain subjects and questions, even as the format of your work changes. For Funmilayo, women’s experiences and representation seem to be a recurring interest across the spaces she is building.

And perhaps that is how a pattern becomes clearer. You may not begin with a grand plan to build several platforms around one particular interest. You may simply keep doing work that matters to you, taking on different opportunities and discovering that certain questions continue to follow you. At some point, it becomes worth asking whether those things are connected and what you want to do with that connection.

But there is another side to Funmilayo’s story that is worth looking at: learning to speak up for herself.

As she pursued new professional opportunities, Funmilayo had to think more deliberately about how she presented herself. It meant looking at how she communicated her experience, making herself more visible and being willing to put herself forward for opportunities she wanted.

Of course, putting yourself out there does not mean you will immediately get the response you hope for. There were times when Funmilayo made the effort but did not see the results she wanted. Rather than simply continuing in the same way, she began to look more closely at her approach and the conversations she needed to have.

In one week, she had six strategic conversations. They did not immediately produce the opportunity she was looking for, but they helped her recognise something about the work she kept returning to: women and the platforms she wanted to build around their experiences.

There is more to this interest than the work she is already doing. Funmilayo recently began a master’s programme in Gender Studies, with plans to pursue a doctorate in the same field. As she puts it, women’s advocacy has entered her blood. She also hopes to move into governance and policymaking for women.

I find this particularly interesting because it suggests that her interest in women’s experiences is not confined to the stories she tells or the conversations she creates. She is also thinking about how that interest could translate into the systems and decisions that affect women’s lives. Media can help bring experiences into the open, give people language for what they are going through and draw attention to issues that might otherwise be overlooked. Governance and policymaking offer another way to engage with those issues.

It is one thing to create a space for women to share their experiences. It is another to want to influence the policies and decisions that shape those experiences in the first place. For Funmilayo, these interests appear to be coming together as she thinks more deliberately about the direction she wants her career to take.

Now, what I find interesting about this is that the conversations did not necessarily give her the immediate result she wanted, but they helped her see her own work more clearly. Sometimes, when we are pursuing an opportunity, we can become so focused on the outcome that we miss what the process is showing us. The conversations we have, the questions people ask and the interests we keep returning to can reveal something about the direction we want to take.

For Funmilayo, those conversations helped her see a recurring theme in her work and think more clearly about how she wanted to position herself. The original goal may still matter, but the process can reveal questions you had not considered before.

I would have loved to know which particular conversation made her stop and think, or whether it was the six conversations together that helped her see this pattern. There is a difference between being told what you should do next and arriving at a clearer understanding of your own direction. The latter can take time, and sometimes it is only when you look back at the conversations you have had that you begin to see what they were pointing towards.

There is also a lesson here about preparation. Updating your profile, improving your skills and getting ready for the next opportunity all matter. But at some point, you have to take the next step. You have to send the message, have the conversation, apply for the opportunity and let people see what you can do.

I think we sometimes underestimate that last part. We can spend time getting ready, building our skills and hoping that the right people will eventually notice what we bring. But being good at what you do and making people understand your value are two different things. At some point, you have to be willing to put yourself forward.

Not every attempt will lead somewhere immediately. Sometimes, you have to rethink your approach. Other times, you discover that the work you want to do is taking shape in a different way from what you first imagined.

For Funmilayo, learning to communicate her own value is particularly interesting because she has spent so much of her career helping other people communicate theirs. She creates platforms for women to share their experiences, facilitates conversations and develops content that brings people’s stories to an audience. Yet she, too, has had to learn to be more intentional about making her own ambitions known.

What I find interesting about this part of Funmilayo’s story is the contrast. She has built experience helping other people communicate their ideas and experiences, yet she has had to be intentional about communicating her own value. You would think that working in media would make this easier, but perhaps knowing how to tell a story and knowing how to tell your own story are two different things. One is about helping people understand an idea; the other sometimes requires you to make a case for yourself.

And perhaps this is one of the more relatable parts of her story. Knowing how to help someone else find their voice does not automatically make it easy to speak up for yourself. You can be confident in the work you do for others and still have to learn how to advocate for your own ambitions.

Funmilayo’s career has taken her from Economics into media, from radio presentation into creative production, and from programme delivery into management and building independent platforms. Along the way, she has developed a range of skills and found a recurring interest in women’s experiences and representation. Now, she is also pursuing academic training that could deepen her understanding of gender and support her longer-term ambitions in governance and policymaking.

What I take away from her journey is not simply that she has built different platforms or moved into a management role. It is that, as her work has evolved, she has continued to find ways to make room for other people’s stories while learning to be more deliberate about her own direction.

Perhaps that is what makes Funmilayo’s journey interesting to watch. She has built a career around creating spaces where other people can share their experiences and be heard. But as she continues to build platforms of her own, she is also learning to be clearer about the work she wants to do and the value she brings to it.

The work of making room for other people’s voices continues. So does the work of finding the words for her own ambitions.