emPawa Africa Music Services Limited

EMPAWA AFRICA MUSIC SERVICES LIMITED is the UK-registered company in the emPawa group, and the entity that holds the copyright registrations the group litigates on. It is company number 12412587 on the register at Companies House, incorporated on 20 January 2020 under the name EMPAWA AFRICA LIMITED and renamed on 10 November 2021. Its status is active.

The registered office is Wisteria Grange Barn, Pikes End, Pinner, Middlesex HA5 2EX. It is a private limited company. Its nature of business is recorded under SIC code 62090, other information technology service activities, rather than under any of the sound recording or music publishing codes. The last accounts were made up to 31 January 2025 and the next are due by 31 January 2027. The last confirmation statement was dated 2 December 2025.

Who owns it

The persons with significant control register records one active controlling person: Oluwatosin Oluwole Ajibade, the artist Mr Eazi, Nigerian, born July 1991, notified on 20 January 2020. His nature of control is recorded as ownership of shares of 75 per cent or more, ownership of voting rights of 75 per cent or more, and the right to appoint or remove directors. No corporate shareholder and no outside investor appears on the register.

Officers

Two directors are currently appointed. Oluwatosin Oluwole Ajibade, Nigerian, appointed 20 January 2020. Yasmin Baba, British, born January 1989, appointed 27 October 2021. Temiloluwa Elizabeth Otedola was appointed on 23 February 2020 and resigned on 20 March 2020. The identities of both serving directors were verified through an authorised corporate service provider in late November and early December 2025.

Related entities

A second UK company, EMPAWA AFRICA MUSIC PUBLISHING SERVICES LIMITED, company number 13875443, was incorporated on 27 January 2022.

A third entity, Empawa 360 FZ LLC, was identified by the United States District Court for the Central District of California as “an Empawa entity” and as the contracting party to the written agreement of about 21 June 2021 governing Lakizo Entertainment’s exploitation of “Empty My Pocket (ft. Joeboy)”. No registration record for Empawa 360 FZ LLC could be located. The “FZ LLC” suffix indicates a free zone company, and no free zone registry with a public search covering it was identified. Its relationship to company 12412587 could not be established from any document.

What a court has found about its rights

In its order of 20 August 2026 in case number 2:25-cv-03944-ODW (BFMx), the United States District Court for the Central District of California recorded that the company “owns the exclusive rights to and copyright registrations for” the compositions and recordings collectively titled “Empty My Pocket”, and that its copyright certificates “constitute prima facie evidence of its ownership”. The court described it as “a small British music services company” which “represents up-and-coming African artists, such as Joseph Akinwale Akinfenwa-Donus, professionally known as Joeboy, and Godfrey”. The declaration supporting those findings was given by Yasmin Baba, the serving director named above.

That is a finding on the face of the registrations, made for the purpose of deciding a fee application. It is not a merits judgment: the underlying infringement action was dismissed on procedural grounds without any ruling on ownership or licensing.