Nigerian musician and entrepreneur Oluwatosin Ajibade, popularly known as Mr Eazi, is considering a future listing on Nigeria’s domestic capital market, as the entertainment and technology entrepreneur seeks to position his growing business interests for wider participation by Nigerian investors.
In an exclusive interview with Nairametrics on Wednesday, Mr Eazi said he supported efforts by the Federal Government and market regulators to encourage major technology companies and African unicorns to list locally, arguing that Nigerians should have an opportunity to own shares in businesses they help create and grow.
For the founder of emPawa Africa and Choplife, the ambition is informed by the example of some of Nigeria’s most prominent business leaders, including Alhaji Aliko Dangote and his father-in-law, Femi Otedola.
“I do believe that some of our elders have shown us what it is to not just build in Nigeria, but build global companies in Nigeria and list them on the local exchange and invite Nigerians to invest, partake in the company they help build and get the benefits of the companies,” he stated.
Mr Eazi said his aspiration extends beyond simply replicating the conventional route taken by large industrial companies, noting that Nigeria’s capital market should also accommodate businesses built around technology, entertainment, intellectual property and other components of the modern digital economy.
“It will be beautiful to one day be like my egbons. The likes of Abdul Samad Rabiu, Alhaji Dangote, Mr Otedola and the likes and list, not just your normal brick-and-mortar businesses, but also in this new world,” he said.
Building a Nigerian corporate base
While the proposed capital market move remains part of his longer-term strategy, Mr Eazi is already restructuring and expanding the businesses within his portfolio.
His interests span entertainment, media, technology, gaming and intellectual property, with Choplife at the centre of a strategy that increasingly seeks to integrate these different areas under a more structured African operating framework.
A significant component of that strategy is the planned relocation of Choplife’s core operations to Itana, a digital-first economic zone backed by the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority.
The decision reflects a growing conversation among African technology entrepreneurs about where their businesses should be incorporated, headquartered and structured as they expand across multiple markets.
For years, international founders and African startups have frequently relied on offshore jurisdictions such as Delaware and London when establishing holding companies or structuring investments. Mr Eazi's preference for an African digital economic zone points to an alternative model in which entrepreneurs can retain a stronger operational and corporate connection to the continent while pursuing international growth.
Explaining the thinking behind the move, he said his experience of operating internationally had also exposed him to risks associated with global corporate structures and jurisdictions.
“Having had the advantage of having a global career, I do realise that there is also the global risk that nobody tells you about. And when I look at what Itana is building, I think it is building on everything. So it’s an opportunity for us to leverage and centralise our operations, and very important to us that it’s on the continent,” he explained.
Beyond music
Mr Eazi's expansion into entrepreneurship reflects the increasingly blurred boundaries between Africa's entertainment, technology and investment sectors.
Having built his public profile through music, he has expanded into business ventures that extend beyond recording and performance, with emPawa Africa supporting emerging African musical talent while Choplife operates across a broader entertainment and technology ecosystem.
His comments on infrastructure also highlighted challenges that extend beyond corporate financing.
According to the entrepreneur, Africa's creative economy needs more attention on the physical infrastructure required to support sustained growth. While large arenas often attract significant investment and publicity, he argued that smaller and mid-sized venues are crucial to the development of artists and the wider entertainment industry.
He identified venues with capacities ranging from about 250 to 1,000 people, as well as specialised sound stages, as particularly important components of the ecosystem.
For emerging artists, producers and other creative professionals, such facilities can provide the infrastructure needed to develop audiences, stage productions and create commercially viable content before they reach the scale associated with major arenas.
Push for a unified African digital market
Mr Eazi also identified regulatory fragmentation across African countries as a major obstacle to the expansion of technology businesses.
Although Africa has a population of more than a billion people and a rapidly expanding digital economy, companies seeking to operate across multiple countries often encounter different regulatory requirements, tax systems, licensing regimes and other market-entry barriers.
He advocated greater policy harmonisation across African jurisdictions, pointing to initiatives such as the African Prosperity Network as part of the broader push towards deeper economic integration.
For African technology companies, greater regulatory alignment could reduce the cost and complexity of expanding into new markets while allowing businesses to operate at a scale more consistent with the size of the continental opportunity.
He also called for a stronger narrative around Africa's technology capabilities, particularly the work being done by local engineers.
“There is this story that is not told enough of the quality of Nigerian engineers building technology, global-standard technology for Africa with the local sort of nuances. Perhaps if that story is told, dem go dey rush us like hot noodles,” he said.
Capital market enters new phase
Mr Eazi's interest in a potential domestic listing comes at a time when optimism around Nigeria's equity market has intensified.
The Nigerian Exchange has recorded a dramatic expansion in total market capitalisation, rising from about N30 trillion in 2023 to N160 trillion in 2026, representing an increase of more than 430 per cent. Projections suggest the market could reach N230 trillion before the end of the year.
The rally has coincided with structural reforms in Nigeria's financial sector and efforts by the administration of President Bola Tinubu to deepen the domestic capital market and encourage greater participation in equities.
Regulators and policymakers have increasingly called for more Nigerian technology companies, unicorns and large privately held businesses to consider local listings, a move that could broaden the range of sectors represented on the exchange.
For entrepreneurs such as Mr Eazi, the proposition is not merely about raising capital. A local listing can also provide an avenue for Nigerians to become shareholders in companies built around the country's talent, consumers and intellectual property.
The prospect of major transactions is further fuelling investor interest, including expectations surrounding the proposed initial public offering of Dangote Petroleum Refinery, which has been discussed at a potential valuation of about $5 billion.
Against that backdrop, Mr Eazi's stated ambition places the creative and technology sectors within the same capital-market conversation traditionally dominated by banking, telecommunications, manufacturing, energy and other large corporate businesses.
Should his plans eventually materialise, a listing by one of Africa's prominent entertainment entrepreneurs could represent a significant milestone for Nigeria's creative economy and demonstrate how locally developed intellectual property, technology and entertainment businesses can transition from private ventures into publicly owned companies.
For now, Mr Eazi's focus remains on building the underlying businesses and infrastructure. But his comments signal an ambition to take African entertainment and technology entrepreneurship into a new phase—one in which global companies are not only built from the continent but can also raise capital, maintain corporate roots and invite ordinary Africans to share in their growth.