Khadija Hassan Musa, popularly known as Lulu Hassan, is one of the top celebrated Swahili news anchors in Kenya.
Besides her illustrious career in the media industry, Lulu is a producer and CEO of Jiffy Pictures, a production company that has produced some of the popular local TV series.
She co-owns the company alongside her husband, Rashid Abdalla, who is also a top Swahili anchor.
In a recent interview, Lulu revealed the journey to making Jiffy Pictures a reality was not a smooth sail as they lacked funds during the initial stages of the startup.
Efforts to secure funding from banks at first bore no fruits but Lulu persistent and presented a clear vision of the project to banks, convincing them to fund her.
What Rashid Abdalla, Lulu Hassan were paid for top Maria Show
”I explained to them and drew a roadmap on what I wanted from even though I didn’t have a bank account then, they bought my idea,” She recalled.
The company still had no equipment and relied on hired equipment and staff, a plan that proved to be too costly.
According to her, Jiffy Pictures began operations in 2015 in Tanzania before coming to Kenya, where it has produced various TV series, including Maria, Zora, Maza, Aziza, Kovu, and Sultana, among others.
”We started with Tanzania, on Maisha Magic Bongo, there was Huba, Moyo, and there was one with Getrude Mungai that was a talk show, Aziza, Moyo, Maza, Sultana and Kovu,” Lulu stated.
She revealed that shows produced by Jiffy Pictures are not only aired on Citizen TV but also on Maisha Magic.
She admitted failure in running the business as their initial shows drove them out of funds, forcing them to return to the drawing board to draft an effective business plan.
”But then whatever we put on screen secured us another show, and we were not concentrated much in making profit but rather show people what we are capable of doing,” She said.
Lulu noted that some of the shows produced presently are funded by the TV stations running them.
