Thousands of songs are uploaded daily by Nigerian artists with little metadata or management support, but a new government-enabled national Digital Service Provider called ‘Discover Nigeria’ hopes to change that.
Set to launch in August, the platform, described by Obi Asika, director-general of the National Council for Arts and Culture, as a creator-first service rather than just a music platform, will focus on discoverability, branding, and professionalising the flood of content entering the digital ecosystem.
Obi Asika made these remarks during his keynote address at the Africa Music Business Roundtable 2026. He positioned Discover Nigeria as part of broader efforts to address structural gaps in Nigeria’s creative economy.
“The question is, how do we look at it in terms of mindset? If you see the point we made at the bottom, the fight for value is a fight against absence. Absence of metadata, of collection infrastructure, of institutions. Because of the absence, the money flows,” Asika said.
He noted that South Africa collects about six times more in music revenue than Nigeria despite having a much smaller market. This disparity exists because South Africa possesses better structure, institutions, and transparency.
