AFRIMA Founder, Mike Dada, Appointed Vice President of African Collaborations Group
African Collaborations Group (ACG), the leading strategic project origination and collaboration platform focused on the industrialisation of sport in Africa through the origination of bankable sport and entertainment district ecosystems, has announced the appointment of Mike Dada to its Advisory Board.
Mr Dada is President and Founder of the All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA), the continent’s flagship music awards platform, established in 2014 in partnership with the African Union Commission (AUC) to celebrate, reward and promote African music globally in pursuit of continental integration, economic prosperity and cultural diplomacy. AFRIMA is broadcast live in more than 84 countries around the world, convenes artists, delegates and production teams from every region of Africa, and has become one of the most important continental infrastructures for the African music industry.
Alongside AFRIMA, Mr Dada serves as Vice President of the African Union’s Pan-African Congress, in which capacity he led the development of the AU’s Plan of Action on Culture and Creative Industries — a landmark continental policy document adopted by the African Union Heads of State Summit in 2023 as the framework guiding the industrialisation of Africa’s cultural and creative economy. He is also a member of the Africa Policy Advisory Board (APAB) for the ONE Campaign, contributing to global policy engagement on African development priorities.
His appointment to the ACG Advisory Board consolidates the platform’s foundational commitment to treating sport and entertainment as an integrated ecosystem from the outset. Where AFRIMA has built the continental infrastructure through which African music reaches a global audience, and where the AU Plan of Action on Culture and Creative Industries provides the policy framework for the industrialisation of Africa’s creative economy at Heads of State level, ACG is originating the physical and financial ecosystems — the sport and entertainment districts — in which that creative economy can be produced, staged, monetised and experienced at continental scale.
Mr Dada’s presence on the Advisory Board ensures that ACG’s work is aligned with the continent’s highest institutional frameworks for cultural and creative industry development, and connected to the pan-African music industry network that AFRIMA has convened over more than a decade.
His appointment brings to the ACG Advisory Board a rare combination of continental cultural leadership, institutional and policy positioning at the highest level of African Union governance, deep pan-African industry relationships across the music and creative economy sectors, and the professional expertise of a lawyer and creative economy specialist — capabilities directly relevant to originating and structuring large-scale sport and entertainment district projects across the African continent.
“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 ACG originates and structures large-scale sport and entertainment district projects across the continent, aligning governments, development finance institutions (DFIs), investors, sport bodies and infrastructure partners to support the development of financially sustainable, mixed-use district ecosystems.
Africa’s sport economy is projected to reach $20 billion by 2035, yet the continent continues to lack the integrated district ecosystems required to support large-scale development. ACG addresses this gap by originating bankable sport and entertainment district projects, moving beyond single-venue development models towards mixed-use, revenue-generating and financially sustainable district ecosystems.
Through its collaborative model, ACG convenes governments, PPP authorities and regulators, development finance institutions, private investors, developers, designers and engineers, legal and transaction advisors, operators, sport federations and leagues, event promoters, media and broadcast partners, academic institutions and host communities, creating structured pathways from concept to feasibility, bankability and delivery.
