Touring Without Borders: Building Africa’s First Scalable Multi-Country Live Music Infrastructure

By Sean Okeke 

Global applause for African music often comes from stages abroad—but for too long, the continent itself has lacked the infrastructure to celebrate its stars at home. Touring across African borders has remained a logistical puzzle: fractured laws, limited infrastructure, and inconsistent support. As one of the architects of Africa’s first scalable, structured touring framework, I have seen firsthand how building a continent-wide music infrastructure isn’t just about concerts;it’s about reengineering how culture circulates within the continent.

Africa has always been rich in sound, but poor in systems. While Afrobeats dominates global airwaves, artists face near-impossible odds trying to tour the continent. These are some of the reasons: no centralized licensing system across borders; varying tax compliance laws and event regulations; inconsistent venue quality and backline availability and the lack of inter-country coordination between promoters and local agencies. As a result, most African artists either skipped touring on the continent or managed one-off shows with little commercial return.

In 2022, Jonzing World took a bold step: designing and executing a 7–10 country African tour for our flagship artist, Rema. The goal wasn’t just to put on shows, it was to establish a repeatable, sound, and profitable model for future acts. This framework would become the continent’s first scalable touring infrastructure. Here’s how we did it:

1. Route Intelligence: We mapped cities based on market demand, streaming data, and ticketing potential—from Lagos to Kampala to Johannesburg.

2. Backline Hubs: Instead of flying equipment per city, we set up resource hubs in East, West, and Southern Africa.

3. Cross-Border Legal Templates: Our legal team created universal performance contracts with modular tax and visa compliance clauses.

4. Brand-Integrated Tour Planning: Partners like MTN and Boomplay plugged into the tour across multiple stops, creating a unified sponsorship structure.

5. Digital Ticketing Standardization: We implemented real-time, mobile-first ticketing through platforms like Flutterwave, allowing analytics, fraud control, and fan tracking.

Naturally, building this kind of infrastructure came with serious challenges. Even with a solid plan, we quickly learned that executing a multi-country tour across Africa meant navigating a complex web of unexpected obstacles from last-minute venue cancellations and customs delays on essential equipment, to sudden shifts in local tax regulations. In some cities, our team arrived to face unstable power supply or the absence of clear standards for artist hospitality and security.

However, each challenge pushed us to adapt. When we lost a venue in one East African country just days before a scheduled performance, we activated a regional backup site that had been pre-negotiated as part of our contingency planning. When a border delay in another country threatened to hold up our equipment, we relied on our regional backline hubs to reroute gear locally without interrupting the schedule. To manage shifting legal requirements across jurisdictions, our legal team developed a central compliance playbook, a living document that helped local promoters stay aligned with our broader framework. These hurdles didn’t derail our vision but made the system stronger, more agile, and more replicable. In overcoming them, we laid the groundwork for a touring model that now supports not only Rema, but dozens of African artists and promoters looking to scale across the continent.

The Rema tour proved not just that it could be done but that it could be profitable, replicable, and influential. Since then, several acts under Mavin Records, Chocolate City, and independent management firms have started adapting our framework. Promoters and venues across Accra, Kigali, and Nairobi have begun to harmonize backstage standards and promoter agreements using our templates. The result: a continent that once struggled to host its own stars is now slowly becoming a legitimate touring circuit—by Africans, for Africans. 

This isn’t just about business. A scalable African touring model means cultural access where fans across the continent get to see homegrown artists in professional, world-class settings. In addition, emerging acts can now build regional followings without relocating abroad. This invariably triggers creative economy growth where tour crews, designers, vendors, and local venues all benefit economically. Finally, there is export readiness where structuring the continent strengthens Africa’s bargaining power with global agents, festivals, and sponsors.

At Jonzing World and Mavin Records, we are expanding this model—integrating new markets like francophone Africa, deepening brand alignment, and preparing for cross-continental co-tours with Western artists. The future of touring is no longer routed through Europe or the U.S.—it’s routed through Africa, with Lagos, Nairobi, and Johannesburg as anchor cities.

Africa doesn’t need to wait for Live Nation or Western conglomerates to structure its music industry. We can and must build our own infrastructure. By removing borders through systems, strategy, and collaboration, we’re making African touring not just possible, but powerful. It’s time we tour not as visitors in foreign lands—but as cultural giants on our own.

About the Author

Sean Okeke is a global artist manager, cultural strategist, and the Director of Operations Jonzing World Entertainment.