Jason Njoku has named himself as the new chief executive officer of online African music service iROKING, following the firing of the service’s ex-CEO Michael Ugwu.
iROKING is a West African online music distribution platform, with over 35,000 tracks from 400 plus artists. It is owned by iROKO Partners, of which Njoku is founder and CEO.
iROKO Partners, though, is more well-known for its online Nigerian Nollywood streaming video outfit iROKOtv, which claims to have around one million unique visitors, with people watching from 178 countries around the world.
But in October, music service iROKING was flung into the spotlight as iROKO Partners released a statement saying that its CEO Michael Ugwu had been fired after he allegedly set up his own digital music offering.
What followed was a dramatic high-profile public spat in which Ugwu hit back at the company for firing him and for the way in which it is ‘streamlining’ iROKING. Reports have emerged of several iROKING staff being let go.
However, in a move to stabilise iROKING, Njoku has decided to take the reins of the business.
According to a press statement released on Monday, Njoku -- who was the original founder and CEO of iROKING alongside his role at iROKOtv -- is taking control of the music offering.
“Njoku will now return to take overall control of iROKING artist management, all aspects of music distribution, including YouTube, iTunes and Amazon distribution, and oversee platform partnerships with the likes of Mxit and Eskimi,” reads the statement.
Njoku, in the statement, adds: "What we've built with iROKING in its 23 month history is pretty incredible. There's a lot of chat amongst the technorati about the potential of the African online music space - now is the time to put words into action, hence why I'm taking a more hands-on approach to growing iROKING from a solid online Nigerian music distributor into a behemoth of a pan-African music platform".
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