Warner Music Africa (WMA) is planning to establish a new creative hub in Lagos, Nigeria.
The move will mark the opening of Warner’s first fully-owned office in the local market. WMA says that its expansion into Lagos will enable it “to provide more of its A&R, Operations, and Marketing expertise to Nigeria’s creative ecosystem.”
Ahead of the opening of its new office in Lagos, Warner Music Africa’s management team, including Alfonso Perez-Soto, president of Emerging Markets, Warner Music; Laverne Thomas, operations lead, WMA; Temi Adeniji, managing director, WMA, and Yoel Kenan, chief executive officer, Africori, met with government officials in Abuja last week.
According to Warner Music Group, this “pivotal journey” saw the executives engage in meetings with key government officials to establish crucial relationships and bolster WMA’s mission of empowering Nigeria’s vibrant creative sector.
In 2019, Warner Music Group invested in Nigeria-based music company Chocolate City in a deal that WMG said will dramatically grow the reach of African artists around the world, and will create new opportunities for global superstars in the region.
In 2022, Warner Music Group acquired a majority stake in Africori, a prominent African music distribution, music rights management, and artist development company that has offices in Johannesburg, London, and Lagos.
WMG first invested in Africori in early 2020. The original deal gave WMG access to what it called “Africa’s largest catalog and A&R network,” as well as enabling WMG to establish a presence in many African markets for the first time. WMG’s publishing division, Warner Chappell Music, also inked a global deal with Africori in 2020.
In addition, the Warner Music Group/Blavatnik Family Foundation Social Justice Fund (WMG/BFF SJF) has contributed more than $400,000 to Nigeria’s creative sector via its Repertoire and Core Funds.
These include $200,000 in 2022 to the West African Vocational Education and $150,000 in 2023 to The Sarz Academy which nurtures emerging talent in music production.
WMA recently signed Nigerian singer-songwriter Joeboy, who has amassed 2 billion streams over the past five years. As part of the deal, Joeboy created his record label, ‘Young Legend’, which will partner with Warner Music Africa for the global distribution of its artists’ music.
