Mallam Balarabe Shehu Ilelah is a seasoned broadcaster with vast knowledge of both national and international laws in broadcasting and more than thirty years experience, serving in different capacities in the broadcast industry. Mall. Ilelah who hails from Bauchi State, was born on 26th June 1962, he graduated from Bayero University with Bachelor of Arts (Combined Honours) and is a veteran Broadcaster of both National and International exposure and records.
He started his career in broadcasting with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Bauchi as an editor, he also served as a producer of News and Current Affairs Programmes.

In the quest to widen his knowledge, skills and horizon in his career, he proceeded to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, (USSR- Moscow) and worked as editor and newscaster/Foreign Language Expert with Radio Moscow International, from there he relocated to Beijing- People’s Republic of China where he worked with China Radio International as a Senior News Editor/Foreign Expert for two years.

He also served as BBC Hausa Service correspondent in the People’s Republic of China.
Mall. Balarabe Shehu Ilelah, being an astute personality and a passionate believer in spreading knowledge had earlier joined the academia in order to impact knowledge. He got a job as Senior Lecturer at the Foreign Studies University, Beijing, China where he taught Media Communication, translations and languages from April 1998 to April, 2001.
Mall. Ilelah believes that the broadcast industry in Nigeria has the ability and capacity of becoming a world-class industry and is passionate to make that a reality. He is aware of the enormous challenges in regulating the broadcast industry and believes that with good and strong initiatives and team work, he can serve his country in this capacity.
Mall. Balarabe Shehu Ilela possesses a strong, modern and international managerial ability, outstanding communication and interpersonal capacity to coordinate and bring progressive ideas to achieving objectives and targets.
He is not only a Journalist and broadcaster per excellence, he is also a successful private entrepreneur with businesses in Nigeria.
His academic expertise translated to documented works like his book titled “Gyara Kayanka”, a Hausa Poem which x-rays social issues in our society published in 2012 as well as a special work on International Multimedia Journalism, a thirty minutes’ research film on Multi Racial Children (between African men and Chinese women) and a Research work on Africa business men in China and their contribution or otherwise. Mall. Balarabe Shehu Ilela is a polyglot as he speaks fluent English, Arabic, Russian, Chinese and Hausa languages. He is currently, pursuing a doctorate degree in International Politics.
He was appointed Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), on 11th June, 2021 and comes with his wealth of experience to contributed his quota to the development of the broadcast industry to meet the challenges of the broadcast digital era.
Mall. Balarabe Shehu Ilela has visited more than 13 countries and is married with children.