Universal Music Africa

Universal Music Africa is Universal Music Group’s regional division for francophone, Hispanophone and Lusophone Africa, headquartered at Green Buro in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. UMG’s own press materials describe it as covering 25 countries across those language zones, distinct from the group’s separate English-language West Africa and South Africa operations.

The division is wholly owned by Universal Music Group via Universal Music France. As of its 13 July 2021 press statement announcing a partnership with French rapper Booba, Franck Kacou served as the division’s managing director. That announcement also launched 92i Africa, a joint-venture label based at UMA’s Abidjan headquarters and run in partnership with Booba’s Tallac Records, giving the major a direct pipeline into signing and marketing francophone African rap acts.

UMA sits inside Universal’s broader African footprint alongside majority-English-language operations in Nigeria and South Africa, and represents the clearest case of a global major building out an in-territory Africa unit rather than licensing through a third party.