MI Abaga at UBA SME Series: Why African creators should embrace AI

For a certain kind of African musician, artificial intelligence (AI) remains the enemy, the technology that steals jobs, flattens creativity, and turns songwriting into a mere prompt. Jude Lemfani Abaga, popularly known as MI Abaga, is not one of them. Speaking at a Lagos business panel earlier this month, the rapper-turned-tech-entrepreneur made a compelling case that clinging to AI anxiety is the real threat to a modern creative career.

Abaga spoke at the fourth edition of United Bank for Africa’s quarterly SME Business Series, held at UBA House on Marina on Thursday, 16 July. Themed “Building for Africa’s Realities: Turning Consumer Feedback into Technology-Driven Solutions”, the session placed Abaga alongside Chowdeck co-founder and CEO Femi Aluko and Octerra Capital managing partner Ashim Egunjobi, with media entrepreneur Adaora Mbelu moderating. While the brief centred on how African founders build products people actually want, Abaga’s remarks on AI emerged as the panel’s most pointed takeaway for the creative sector.

Femi Aluko opened the founder-led discussion with Chowdeck’s own operational reckoning. The food delivery platform learned early that Nigerian consumers do not represent a monolith. Purchase data revealed nuanced behaviours: some customers prioritise speed, while others will happily wait an extra fifteen minutes to reduce delivery costs.

Because spending habits shift as monthly salaries deplete, this rhythm directly influences Chowdeck’s pricing, logistics, and restaurant partnerships. Aluko credited this close reading of consumer data with the birth of Chowstore, a spin-off business that grew organically from observing actual app behaviour rather than relying on initial assumptions.

Abaga picked up this thread, pointing…