African Collaborations Group (ACG), a strategic project origination and collaboration platform focused on advancing the industrialisation of sport in Africa through the development of bankable sports and entertainment district ecosystems, has announced the appointment of AFRIMA founder Mike Dada to its Advisory Board.
African Collaborations Group, a strategic project origination and collaboration platform focused on advancing the industrialisation of sport in Africa, announced the appointment as part of its efforts to develop bankable sport and entertainment district ecosystems across the continent.
Dada founded AFRIMA in 2014 in partnership with the African Union Commission (AUC). The continental music awards platform celebrates, recognises and promotes African music globally, with a broader mission to advance continental integration, economic prosperity and cultural diplomacy.
Broadcast live in more than 84 countries, AFRIMA brings together artists, delegates and production teams from across Africa and has grown into one of the continent's most influential platforms for the music industry.
Beyond his leadership of AFRIMA, Dada serves as Vice President of the African Union's Pan-African Congress. In this capacity, he led the development of the AU's Plan of Action on Culture and Creative Industries, a landmark policy document adopted by African Union Heads of State at the 2023 Summit. The framework provides strategic direction for the industrialisation of Africa's cultural and creative economy.
He is also a member of the Africa Policy Advisory Board (APAB) of the ONE Campaign, where he contributes to global policy engagement on African development priorities.
His appointment to the ACG Advisory Board reinforces the organisation's approach to developing sport and entertainment as interconnected sectors within Africa's wider creative economy.
While AFRIMA has established a continental platform for taking African music to global audiences, and the AU's Plan of Action provides a policy framework for developing the creative economy, ACG is focused on creating the physical and financial infrastructure needed to support these industries through integrated sport and entertainment districts.
These developments are expected to provide spaces where creative and sporting activities can be produced, staged, commercialised and experienced on a continental scale.
ACG said Dada's appointment would strengthen its alignment with the African Union's institutional frameworks for cultural and creative industry development while connecting the organisation to the extensive pan-African music industry network built through AFRIMA over the past decade.
His experience brings together continental cultural leadership, high-level institutional and policy engagement within the African Union, extensive relationships across the music and creative industries, and professional expertise as a lawyer and creative economy specialist.
These capabilities are expected to contribute to the origination and structuring of large-scale sport and entertainment district projects across Africa.
"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," said Nicolas Pompigne-Mognard, Founder and Executive Chairman of ACG.
The ACG Advisory Board provides strategic guidance as the organisation develops and structures large-scale sport and entertainment district projects across Africa. Its work involves aligning governments, development finance institutions (DFIs), investors, sporting bodies and infrastructure partners to establish financially sustainable, mixed-use district ecosystems.
Africa's sport economy is projected to reach $20 billion by 2035. However, the continent continues to face a shortage of integrated infrastructure capable of supporting large-scale development across the sector.
ACG aims to address this gap by originating bankable sport and entertainment district projects, moving beyond conventional single-venue developments towards integrated, mixed-use ecosystems designed to generate multiple revenue streams and ensure long-term financial sustainability.
Through its collaborative model, the organisation brings together governments, public-private partnership (PPP) authorities and regulators, development finance institutions, private investors, developers, designers, engineers, legal and transaction advisers, operators, sport federations and leagues, event promoters, media and broadcast partners, academic institutions and host communities.
The approach is designed to establish structured pathways for projects from initial concept and feasibility assessment through to financial viability, bankability and eventual delivery.
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