Image by FLIP
Nigerian music executive and entrepreneur Oluwatosin Ajibade, popularly known as Mr Eazi, says African sports will struggle to attract serious capital until the industry fixes its data, infrastructure and payment systems. Speaking on CNBC Africa, the Choplife Gaming founder argued that talent is the continent’s least scarce resource, and that the real gap lies in the systems needed to turn it into commercial value.
“What is synonymous across technology, sports, gaming, music is talent,” Ajibade said. “My thesis is behind talent, what you need to turn talent into business is data, is technology, is infrastructure, and it’s investment.”
He described those pillars as sequential. Investors back a sector when reliable data exists, infrastructure is visible and commercial flows can be tracked. In African sports, he said, two problems stand in the way: a lack of trust that players will receive what they are owed, and a lack of infrastructure. Without verifiable information on when fixtures are played, how many fans attend and how players and teams perform, he said, sponsors and institutional investors cannot build a business case for local leagues.
Paying players directly
Ajibade pointed to the Locker Room Bonus, a technology-led reward scheme his group runs in Nigeria’s second-tier Nigeria National League (NNL). Players on winning sides are paid straight into digital wallets after the match, bypassing club intermediaries.
“By the time they’re in the locker room, they get ₦60,000 (approximately $45) straight up to their wallet,” he said. “It doesn’t go through anybody and it’s enabled by technology.”
Ajibade said the scheme has been renewed for a second year in Nigeria. Across the continent, it had paid $1,952,699 to 7,597 players over 3,080 matches as of October 29, 2026, according to the programme’s website, covering 449 teams in 30 leagues across four sports and nine countries. He said the goal is to apply the model across football, volleyball, basketball and rugby.
Each payout also leaves a digital record, which he said supports know-your-customer checks and wider record-keeping. His team is building tools that let referees log bookings and match events in real time, with the goal of producing live in-game statistics of the kind NFL broadcasts carry, which he said give investors confidence they can reach an audience.
Image by Chris wade Ntezicimpa
Capital from IP, ambitions on the Nigerian Exchange
Ajibade said his businesses operate in approximately 22 African countries across music, payments and gaming, and that his group assesses new markets on mobile money adoption, payment infrastructure and youth demographics. He sees convergence across sports, music and film under the Choplife umbrella, and said he would like to see the combined platform listed on the Nigerian stock exchange one day.
None of his funding, he said, came from banks or private equity.
“All the capital I’ve ever gotten has not come from any bank,” he said. “It has come solely from putting out music, having the music go across the world, marketing it, protecting the IP, getting those investments and reinvesting it in my sector.”
He argued there is enough capital in Nigeria and across Africa to back more of the continent’s cultural assets, and called for stronger domestic ownership of rights. On scaling, he was direct about the need for partners.
“You definitely can’t go it alone,” Ajibade said. “You might have all the talent, but you need somebody who has the investment. You might have the investment, but you need somebody who has the talent. You might have the talent and the investment, but you need somebody who has the technology.”
The Locker Room Bonus is presented as player welfare, and it does address a long-standing problem: unpaid or delayed bonuses have dented the credibility of Nigerian lower-league football for years. Its more lasting value may be the data it generates. Every payout confirms that a fixture took place, records the result and ties it to a verified squad and set of wallets. For a second-tier league with little broadcast income, that is the audit trail sponsors and broadcasters want before committing money.
It also raises a question leagues should settle early: who owns that information. If match records and player payment histories sit with a private partner rather than the competition, the league’s most bankable data asset is held by its sponsor. Federations negotiating similar deals across the continent would be wise to write data access and ownership into contracts from the outset.
Ajibade’s listing ambition rests on the same reasoning. A Nigerian-listed group spanning music, events, payments and sports would give local investors a direct route into the creative economy, but its sports arm will be judged on whether it produces recurring revenue through data, media or sponsorship.
Watch the full interview on CNBC Africa
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