Asa Asika: Davido’s Manager and Co-Founder of The Plug
Asa Asika is a Nigerian talent manager best known as the manager of the musician Davido and as a co-founder of The Plug, a Lagos-based entertainment company that works with several well-known Afrobeats artists. He has been in the music business since his teens and has become one of the better-known managers in African music. This profile covers his career and the company he helped build, and it leaves out his private relationships and income, which are not documented by reliable sources.
Quick Facts
| Detail | Information and source |
|---|---|
| Date of birth | 14 August 1990 (Wikipedia) |
| Occupation | Talent manager; co-founder of The Plug |
| Best-known client | Davido (Wikipedia; Business Insider Africa) |
| Family link | Nephew of Obi Asika and cousin of the artist Naeto C (Wikipedia) |
| Company | The Plug, with arms including Plug Entertainment, Plug Live, The Plug Music, Plug Films, Plug Publishing and Plug Sports (Wikipedia) |
| Event brand | The Block Party Series (Wikipedia) |
| Recognition | Artiste Manager of the Year at the City People Music Awards, 2018, and at The Beatz Awards, 2019 (Wikipedia) |
| RIAA plaques | Received on 22 March 2021 for Davido and Ayo Jay (Wikipedia) |
Early career
According to Wikipedia, Asa Asika began working at the entertainment firm Storm 360 when he was sixteen, on shows run by his uncle, Obi Asika, and stayed there until 2012, when his uncle and Olisa Adibua ended their partnership. At Storm 360 he worked with artists including Ikechukwu, ELDee, Sasha P and Naeto C and became talent manager to YQ, and later to R2Bees and Davido. The entry says that in 2013 he founded StarGaze Management Company after a split with Davido, and that in 2014 he signed Naeto C, BOJ of the group DRB LasGidi and Ayo Jay to it.
That early period matters because it shows how he learned the business: through live shows and artist handling inside a family-connected company, rather than through a formal route. The details come from a single reference entry, so we treat dates as reported.
The Plug
In 2016, Wikipedia says, he founded The Plug Entertainment, a management firm, and in 2017 became Davido’s manager again under it. Today the company calls itself The Plug Global Agency. Business Insider Africa and Billboard have both profiled the company. A summary of those reports describes it as a Lagos-based entertainment, music publishing, distribution, live events, sports and branding company, whose roster has included Ckay, Oxlade, BOJ, Focalistic, Victony, King Promise and Bella Shmurda. We could not read the full articles, so we cannot confirm the current roster, and artists move between managers.
The company’s own website carries a statement from its managing partners expressing confidence in Afrobeats’ long-term global relevance. We report that as the company’s view, not as a fact.
Davido and the management role
A manager’s work is hard to see from outside. Public records show a few concrete things: the RIAA plaques that Wikipedia says he received in March 2021 for Davido and Ayo Jay, which reflect certified sales in the United States, and the industry awards for Artiste Manager of the Year. Wikipedia’s wording about the awards is ambiguous. It says he won the Beatz Awards prize in 2019 and the City People Music Awards one in 2018, and we repeat that as written. Beyond those items, the best sources are interviews in which he describes his approach.
2026 interview
Search results show that Asika appeared in 2026 on The Manager’s Playbook podcast, hosted by Mauricio Ruiz, discussing Afrobeats’ global growth, The Plug’s business, Davido’s touring strategy, brand deals and building a lasting career. He also posted about it on LinkedIn. We did not listen to the full episode and so do not quote it; it is a good place to hear his own account.
What is left out
Earlier versions of this page included an estimated net worth and gossip about a past relationship. Wikipedia does mention a relationship with the singer Cuppy that became public in January 2018 and ended in 2020, but it is a private matter that adds nothing to a professional profile, so we leave it out. We also leave out family bereavements mentioned in the reference entry. We do not publish net worth estimates because no source shows how any figure was reached.
Timeline
- 1990: Born, per Wikipedia.
- Around 2006: Starts at Storm 360 at sixteen.
- 2012: Leaves Storm 360 as the firm’s partners split, as reported.
- 2013: Founds StarGaze Management Company.
- 2016: Founds The Plug Entertainment.
- 2017: Returns as Davido’s manager.
- 2018 and 2019: Manager awards at City People and Beatz.
- March 2021: RIAA plaques for Davido and Ayo Jay.
- 2026: Appears on The Manager’s Playbook podcast.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Asa Asika?
A Nigerian talent manager, co-founder of The Plug and manager of Davido.
How old is he?
He turned 36 on 14 August 2026, if the Wikipedia birth date is right.
What is The Plug?
A Lagos-based company working in artist management, publishing, live events, film and sport.
Is Davido his only client?
No. The Plug’s roster has included other artists, according to Business Insider Africa and Billboard summaries.
Why managers matter in Afrobeats
Afrobeats has grown into a global genre over the last decade, and with it the business around the artists has become more formal. Managers negotiate brand deals, plan tours, coordinate with record labels and handle publishing. In interviews summarised by podcast listings, Asika has described brand deals and touring as central parts of an artist’s career, and the titles of two episodes of The Manager’s Playbook, “How To Get Brands To Pay Your Artist” and one on tour strategy, point to those themes. We have not listened to them in full, so we mention only the headlines.
The Plug has also moved beyond management into live events, film and sport, according to the subsidiaries Wikipedia lists. That mix suggests a company trying to earn from several parts of the entertainment business at once, which is a common strategy for firms built around a few big artists. Whether it has worked financially is not something we can say; none of the sources we found publishes the company’s accounts.
How the sources compare
Our main source for dates is Wikipedia, which is brief and, in places, ambiguously worded. The business-press profiles are more useful for what the company does, but they are partly built on the company’s own statements. We have therefore labelled claims as reported where there is no second source. We also note that the entry says the uncle’s firm and Olisa Adibua “ended their partnership” in 2012, and we did not find coverage of that event, so we do not describe it further.
A note on the awards
Industry awards for managers are less visible than awards for artists, and the organisers of the City People and Beatz events publish limited records. For that reason we describe the two manager awards exactly as Wikipedia words them and do not add nominees, categories or ceremony dates. If you know of a primary source for either one, please send it to us and we will update this page.
Sources
- Wikipedia (Asa Asika)
- Business Insider Africa
- Billboard
- The Plug Entertainment
- The Manager’s Playbook podcast
What we could not verify
- The current roster of The Plug.
- The exact dates of the awards and who presented them.
- His income or net worth.
- Details of his departure from and return to Davido’s team beyond what Wikipedia says.
- Anything about his family beyond the uncle and cousin named above.
Corrections can be sent through our Corrections page.
