Mike Dada, president and founder of the All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA), has been appointed to the advisory board of the African Collaborations Group (ACG). ACG develops sport and entertainment districts across Africa, and the appointment places a senior figure from the continent’s music awards platform alongside its project team.
Dada’s background#
AFRIMA was established in 2014 in partnership with the African Union Commission (AUC) to celebrate, reward and promote African music globally. The awards are broadcast live in more than 84 countries and bring together artists, delegates and production teams from every region of Africa.
Alongside AFRIMA, Dada serves as Vice President of the African Union’s Pan-African Congress. In that role he led the development of the African Union’s Plan of Action on Culture and Creative Industries, which the African Union Heads of State Summit adopted in 2023 as the framework for industrialising Africa’s cultural and creative economy the framework for industrialising Africa’s cultural and creative economy. He is also a member of the Africa Policy Advisory Board (APAB) for the ONE Campaign.
Role on the ACG advisory board#
The advisory board provides strategic guidance as ACG originates and structures large-scale sport and entertainment district projects across the continent. It aims to align governments, development finance institutions (DFIs), investors, sport bodies and infrastructure partners behind financially sustainable, mixed-use district ecosystems.
ACG says Dada’s appointment brings the following to the board:
- continental cultural leadership, including leadership of AFRIMA
- institutional and policy experience within African Union governance
- industry relationships across the music and creative economy sectors in Africa
- professional expertise as a lawyer and creative economy specialist
In a statement, Nicolas Pompigne-Mognard, Founder and Executive Chairman of ACG, said:
“Mike Dada brings to our Advisory Board a rare combination of continental cultural infrastructure leadership and Heads of State-level policy positioning. Through AFRIMA, he has built one of the most important continental cultural infrastructures Africa has, and through his leadership at the AU Pan-African Congress, he has shaped the very policy framework that guides the industrialisation of Africa’s creative economy at Heads of State level. That combination, commercial infrastructure and continental policy leadership, is exactly what ACG needs as we originate bankable sport and entertainment district ecosystems across the African continent, projects that must be aligned with the continent’s highest institutional cultural agendas and connected to the industry networks that will bring them to life. His presence on our Advisory Board is a genuine strategic asset.”
The gap ACG aims to address#
ACG projects that Africa’s sport economy will reach $20 billion by 2035. The continent still lacks the integrated district ecosystems needed to support large-scale development. ACG says it is originating bankable projects that go beyond single-venue models and aim for mixed-use, revenue-generating and financially sustainable districts.
Through its collaborative model, ACG brings together:
- governments, public-private partnership (PPP) authorities and regulators
- development finance institutions and private investors
- developers, designers and engineers
- legal and transaction advisors and operators
- sport federations and leagues, and event promoters
- media and broadcast partners
- academic institutions and host communities
ACG says this structure creates pathways from concept to feasibility, bankability and delivery.
