Sleek Weekly, a Nigerian lifestyle and entertainment magazine has launched its operations in Ghana which would see more content from the country in the publication, which is circulated in 27 other African countries as well as the UK, Canada and US.

The mid-July edition which is expected to hit the shelves on Tuesday, July 19 focuses on Ghana’s biggest talent exports with Ghanaian sex symbol, TV personality and actor Chris Attoh as the main star on the cover.  Joining him is the controversial, and out spoken owner of Aphrodisiac Nightclub and evicted housemate in the ongoing Big Brother Amplified reality TV show, Confidence Haugen.

Other features in the latest edition include a celebrity battle between football stars JJ Okocha and Nwankwo Kanu; interior designer Keisha Umoren; hot events across Africa; entertainment gist, among others.

According to Symon Adeji, CEO and strategic director of Sleek Media International, the magazine hopes to catch this consumer wave by becoming the first pan African weekly fashion and lifestyle magazine.  He said the magazine would use a multi-level marketing strategy for all of Africa, and would operate virtual offices in Angola, Kenya, South Africa and Ghana. It would also establish sales points in these countries.

“We believe in taking big risks as the compensation equals the risk. However, we are operating on the timetable of our business expansion strategyOur projected readership for SleekWeekly is 850,000 copies within 10 months,” Adeji said.

SleekWeekly was first published as Sleek, a bi-monthly magazine, in 2005. It was revamped in 2009 and became a weekly in November last year. It now provides 44 glossy pages of lifestyle content, focusing on high-end luxury services and products. Adeji says it links “the artistry of Africa with the creativity of the West in a manner that has never been done before.”

Sleek Media International is a publishing, media consulting and PR Company, based in Lagos and New York, with an expansion plan rooted in a realization that there was a huge interest in Nigeria across Africa, partly because of the vibrant music scene and also because of Nollywood’s success in making films for the masses.

“We discovered that the rest of Africa wants to know what is going on in Nigeria,” Adeji said. He also referred to the rise of the middle class as another factor influencing the decision to move beyond Nigeria.