Each time I visit Facebook, I’m keen on checking out groups that are making a buzz in the social media space. So far, I’ve found several groups including 1709 Media, FacemeIFaceU and Naijaborn being managed by a new media & entertainment start-up that has built a strong and vibrant community of fans on Facebook.

I caught up with the master-mind of these Facebook communities, Francis Oghuma, who is CEO of Qubestreet, a pan-African media & entertainment start-up launched in Nigeria in November 2006 and South Africa in November 2008, with the goal of uniting Africans through interactive solutions, events, publications and new media interactive projects across different niche markets.

Francis (listed as one of Nigeria’s Young Web Celebrities to Watch) and I met up recently in Lagos where he shared with me his craze for social media, his stints for the global social media space and some scoop on his latest projects.

Don’t be left out…be the next to know;-)

SN: Please tell us briefly about yourself, background and interests.

Francis: My name is Francis Omokhape oghuma, a young ambitious Nigerian youth, born into a polygamous family. I run an emerging media empire (Qubestreet Media & Entertainment) we are based in Lagos & Johannesburg Africa. We are fully into Technology, Media & Entertainment services.

SN: Could you tell us more about your current projects?

Francis: We are currently working on Ilueko.com which would be launching before the end of this first quarter. its a platform for people to connect with the city through the use of technology & obviously we are working closely with Startups Nigeria on the Nigeria2.0 (www.nigeria20.com - to be launched soon) a platform to showcase the best startups emerging from Nigeria through events and connect the developers, entrepreneurs and corporate organizations  through a new media event.

SN: No doubt, you have definitely created a lot of buzz on Facebook for your projects. Which of them are you working on right now?

Francis: The Ilueko Platform & Nigeria 2.0 project

SN: It seems to me that you are gradually building a corporation called Qubestreet, could you briefly explain what the organization behind the name really is?

Francis: Qubestreet Corporation is the emerging media empire with interest in the technology, media, and leisure and entertainment markets. We are youthful and innovative in use of technology. We are a young company with keen interest in the African market. We are currently registered in Lagos & Johannesburg .

SN: Do you have any strategic partnerships for your projects or you prefer to work alone?

Francis: We don’t work alone in executing our projects, we select best hands in any field we getting involved in to add value to both businesses so I would say we work on collaborative projects e.g. Nigeria 2.0 and a few other brands we hope to launch in the next few years.

SN: Any competitors?

Francis: For us competition is a value added service to any organization to be able to check their effectiveness and delivery. So in the media market we believe competitors would surely emerge depending on the products we launching in the market, for now competitors are around waiting for us to come up with products and do better.

SN: What challenges do you currently face as a social media/web entrepreneur?

Francis: Simple: Skilled Man-power (Creative & Technology) & Enough capital.

SN: What do you think of new startups and innovation coming out of Nigeria today and what startups, in your opinion, should be watched?

Francis: The Nigerian web industry is still very young and most startups coming up for me are just there, they haven’t created a value added service to leave my terrestrial startups(international products we currently use e.g. Yahoo, Facebook), but truthfully I am a regular user of naijapals.com, sturvs.com & startupsnigeria.com since you guys add value to my brands. Lol.

SN: With so much hype about Nigerian scammers on Facebook, how do you think this might impact on Nigerian web entrepreneurs who are struggling to build a good online reputation?

Francis: Firstly, I haven’t experienced any Nigerian scammer on FB, and i think if a web entrepreneur is trying to gain presence on FB, he should reduce excessive adding of friends and attend more meetups in the offline scene (connect with potential targets through meet ups like (Bar camps, Developer Garage, Nigeria 2.0 e.g.) to create an enabling environment for adding people in the online communities. I also think he/she can place ads officially through the facebook ads platform to market the products or himself to the potential audience he is targeting.

SN: What are your thoughts about Nigeria’s social media/web space?

Francis: The Market is fertile, virgin and up for grab!

SN: You’re 23, smart, tech-savvy and social media crazy. Do you consider yourself the next Mark Zuckerberg?

Francis: Thanks for the compliment, I appreciate the kind words, I must confess I admire mark zuckerberg a lot as a young CEO running a global social portal, I read up about him and his company, but I don’t consider myself as the next mark. “Mark would also be mark”. I am more of a serial entrepreneur type of business man, I see my self as the next Francis O. Oghuma (papa qube) taking Africa to the global map in new media solutions.

SN: By the way, who are your role models in the web industry?

Francis: Jeff Bezoz and Mark Zuckerberg

SN: Any final thoughts?

Francis: I believe you doing a lot to help emerging startups in Nigeria and in the diaspora and I would like you to keep doing it and never think of stopping cause you might be on you way  the international market: The Techcrunch of the Nigerian & African market.