The entertainment, media, technology, gaming and intellectual property company founded by Nigerian musician Mr Eazi, Choplife, has moved its operations to Itana, Nigeria’s first digital special economic zone.
Choplife’s corporate and regulatory base changed due to this move. With the company pointing to Itana’s business-friendly regulatory environment and its potential to make cross-border operations easier as key reasons for the decision.
Choplife is the latest company to join Itana, which now hosts about 50 businesses. The digital free zone has attracted companies looking to build from Nigeria while serving customers and markets around the world.
Itana offers businesses access to multicurrency accounts, international markets and a digital-first regulatory framework designed to reduce some of the administrative hurdles involved in running a cross-border business from Nigeria.
“We’re excited to welcome Mr Eazi and the team at Choplife,” Itana CEO Chinyere Inya said. She described the move as part of a growing trend of innovative companies choosing to build from Itana for global markets.
For Mr Eazi, whose real name is Oluwatosin Ajibade, the decision is also about keeping Choplife rooted in Africa even as its audience extends beyond the continent.
“When I look at what Itana is building, the founders that are part of Itana and the spirit behind it, it is an opportunity for us to leverage and centralise our operations,” Ajibade said.
He added that having the company based on the continent was particularly important to Choplife.
Choplife began with emPawa Africa, the music company Ajibade founded in 2019. He later expanded into events and intellectual property through Detty Rave and into sports with 1v1 Africa.
Choplife was launched as a brand in 2020, bringing several of these ventures together.
Today, the company operates across entertainment, media, technology, gaming and intellectual property, with interests spanning music, film, sports and gaming. Its operations cover markets including Ghana, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Botswana, Sierra Leone, Mali and Liberia.
Running a business across so many markets, however, comes with its own challenges.
Ajibade said companies expanding across Africa often have to deal with different licensing requirements, banking systems, foreign exchange rules and corporate regulations in each country.
That can make expansion slow and expensive.
He said Choplife has repeatedly had to go through similar processes each time it enters a new market, sometimes delaying opportunities until they are no longer viable.
“If I want to do my tech business in both countries, it’s an entirely different process, and I have to do it every time,” he said.
For Ajibade, the solution is to build an African company that can operate globally without losing its roots.
“The ethos is to build an African company, just like those who have gone before me have done, or to build a pan-African company that, in its operation, in its registration, in its composition, is truly African from top to bottom, but is world-class,” he said.
Choplife was looking for a jurisdiction that could simplify some of the regulatory and financial challenges involved in operating across multiple African markets.
Ajibade pointed to issues such as know-your-customer and know-your-business requirements, banking, foreign exchange and corporate regulations as areas where businesses often face friction.
Itana’s digital-first structure is designed to bring many of these processes under one regulatory framework.
Businesses operating within the zone can access multicurrency accounts, receive and hold foreign currency and move capital across borders. The zone also offers tax incentives and exemptions aimed at reducing the cost of doing business.
Companies can incorporate remotely, while Itana says the process can be completed in as little as two weeks.
The company is also developing a physical district around the digital zone in Alaro City, along Lagos State’s Lekki Free Zone corridor. The plan is to create a hub where companies, talent and investors can operate alongside the digital infrastructure.
For Choplife, the move is already translating into operations on the ground. Ajibade said the company has begun working from the zone with engineers based in Nigeria.
The company is also considering a shared physical campus at Itana, where its team could work alongside other businesses in the ecosystem.
Choplife plans to use its base to support further investment in content production, including film and media.
Choplife’s arrival also gives Itana an opportunity to prove that its model can work beyond traditional technology startups.
The creative economy is increasingly becoming an important part of Nigeria’s digital and economic landscape, but creative companies operating across borders face many of the same regulatory and administrative challenges as technology businesses.
Inya said Itana wants to provide creative businesses with a stable jurisdiction where they can incorporate, access services and manage the requirements that come with operating internationally.
“That sort of aligns with our own strategy,” she said, adding that creative businesses need a place that offers stability and a one-stop structure for incorporation and other business requirements.
Nigeria’s creative sector currently contributes about 2.3% to the country’s GDP and is expected to generate an additional two million jobs by 2030, according to the Federal Ministry of Art, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy.
For Itana, bringing Choplife into the zone is therefore more than another company joining its growing list of tenants. It is also an opportunity to show that an African digital jurisdiction can support businesses built around African talent and intellectual property while helping them reach global markets.
Whether Itana can ultimately reduce the cross-border friction that has long challenged African businesses remains to be seen. But Choplife’s move suggests companies are increasingly looking for new ways to build globally without moving their foundations away from the continent.