African Collaborations Group (ACG), by its own admission “the leading strategic project origination and collaboration platform focused on the industrialization of sport in Africa through the origination of bankable sport and entertainment district ecosystems,” announced the appointment of Dr Adesegun Adeosun Jr, widely known as Dr King Smade, to its Advisory Board.
Dr Adeosun is the founder of Smade Group, a cultural enterprise powering African creativity worldwide, and co-founder of Afro Nation, the world’s largest Afrobeats festival. Over more than two decades, he has played a defining role in the global rise of Afrobeats, taking African music from the diaspora underground to the global mainstream, and building the platforms, venues, festivals and campaigns that carried it there.
His work spans music, live entertainment, cultural infrastructure and cultural diplomacy across Africa, Europe, the Caribbean and North America. He has promoted and produced headline shows for many of the biggest names in African music, including Wizkid, Burna Boy, Davido and Tiwa Savage, and holds the historic distinction of selling out London’s O2 Arena three nights in a row for Wizkid — a first in the arena’s history for an African act.
He co-launched the Official UK Afrobeats Chart, contributed to the Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Chart, and built cultural infrastructure through venues including SMADE Lounge and programming partnerships with institutions such as The Africa Centre.
His current work sits at the intersection of music, policy, tourism and economic development, using culture as a strategic tool for job creation, investment, exports and long-term nation branding, and building sustainable creative ecosystems anchored on talent pipelines, ownership pathways and global partnerships that ensure culture is economically protected and future-proofed.
His appointment to the ACG Advisory Board is strategically foundational to ACG’s doctrine, which is that sport and entertainment districts, at the scale ACG is originating, cannot be conceived as sport infrastructure with entertainment layered on afterwards; they must be designed as integrated sport and entertainment ecosystems from the outset.
Entertainment programming — music, festivals, concerts, cultural events — is what fills a district on non-match days, sustains the venue economics that underpin financial bankability, animates the surrounding retail, hospitality and public realm, and turns a stadium project into a lived cultural asset for the city and country that host it. Dr King Smade’s appointment ensures that this integrated logic is embedded into ACG’s work from the first conception of a project, not added as an afterthought.
His appointment brings to the ACG Advisory Board an unmatched combination of cultural entrepreneurship, festival and venue programming expertise, deep relationships across the artistic, cultural and diaspora communities, and a demonstrated track record of building cultural infrastructure that generates real economic value — capabilities directly relevant to originating and structuring large-scale sport and entertainment district projects across the African continent.
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 says it “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
Nicolas Pompigne-Mognard, Founder and Executive Chairman of ACG, commented, “You cannot think sport infrastructure without thinking entertainment from the outset, and Dr King Smade’s appointment is a strategic statement of exactly that principle. What he has built with Afro Nation and SMADE Group — a global cultural platform anchored in African creativity — is the very ecosystem thinking that ACG is applying to sport and entertainment districts across the continent. His presence on our Advisory Board ensures that entertainment, culture and creative economy considerations are embedded into every project we originate from the first conception, not added at a later stage. That is what makes district ecosystems financially viable, culturally alive, and genuinely valuable to the cities and communities they serve.”
“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.
“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.”
