“Sorry for the delay, I was on the Finab construction sites”, apologizes our host before introducing us to his cozy offices in La Haie vive, an upscale district of Cotonou where his activity is concentrated. After two hours of waiting, Ulrich Adjovi is friendly but “stressed” who receives us three days before the start of the International Arts Festival of Benin (Finab), his new challenge, imagined only nine months earlier.
Because, “man of challenges”, Ulrich Adjovi likes to do things in capital letters. The first edition of Finab, which takes place from February 14 to 19, has taken up residence in three cities: Cotonou, Porto-Novo and Ouidah. The festival even featured famous Nigerian fashion designer Alphadi as headliner. But the Finab is not only devoted to styling. Music, cinema, dance, literature, theater and even gastronomy are also present there. “The Finab is a major exhibition and visibility market for all our arts in Benin”, boasts its promoter with enthusiasm.
Serial entrepreneur
From Finab, this 30-year-old with a controlled look wants to make the largest arts market in Africa. If the ambition is great, the businessman intends above all to participate in the construction of an ecosystem still little structure. “Our goal is to impact and provide lasting solutions to our problems to create wealth,” he explains. For example, in 90% of cases, a musician who sings in Benin does not even know how to eat. At the end of their career, artists have nothing. For us, it is a question of supporting their careers, whether visual artist, musician or other, by creating a framework that connects the necessary actors in order to make Africa rich with its own riches. And to get there, the man can count on his experience.
Born in 1985, Ulrich Adjovi embodies above all the success story of a serial entrepreneur. The chartered accountant, trained in France after his baccalaureate obtained in Benin, has already made a name for himself in the world of entertainment in his country and the sub-region. The story begins in 2013, when he opened the “Le Calypso” nightclub. The establishment is experiencing rapid growth and with the support of his Lebanese partner Sohad Barbar, Ulrich Adjovi is increasing investments in the showbiz world.
Nicknamed the “king of entertainment”, Adjovi holds, through his holding company the Empire Group (more than 3 billion FCFA in turnover in 2022), several companies in Benin. In La Haie vive, his games room adjoins his Domino restaurant, open 24 hours a day to serve music lovers coming out of his nightclub located close by. Opposite is a group ice cream parlor and, a few meters further on, the businessman’s hair salon, as well as his guest house which welcomes most of his event guests.
25 companies present within the Empire group
Exclusive representative of the Universal Music Africa label in Benin, Ulrich Adjovi produces artists. He is also one of the most important actors in events. Each year, his group organizes concerts which see international artists parade on the stages of its performance halls, of course. Jack of all trades, the “CEO”, as some of his service providers call him, also invests in the special industrial zone of Glo-Djigbé. In 2023, the Empire group has no less than 25 companies present in five other countries, Nigeria, Togo, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Congo. “As they say, it’s an empire and you can’t see the four walls of an empire,” Adjovi quips about the “nebula”.
The key to its success? First, have faith. Afterwards, faire always more by being constantly in action. “We are used to the Empire group, not to do things like the others. We always try to push things further,” he proudly explains. Hence this mantra tirelessly repeated to its 1,200 employees: “We have all of death to sleep and all of old age to rest”. Leave to suffer failures? “Each failure must be an apprenticeship”, reminds Ulrich Adjovi.
Son of… but not only
Son of Séverin Adjovi, former minister and former mayor of Ouidah, Ulrich Adjovi sometimes has trouble getting rid of the weight of his surname. If he often hears critics who associate his success in the business world with his parentage, he is nonetheless annoyed when the subject is mentioned. “I fought to get there, I didn’t get a franc from my father,” he protests strongly. But this enthusiast of large cars concedes: “when you are lucky enough to have a father called Séverin Adjovi, there are doors that are open to you.
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If political and legal intrigues led his illustrious father into exile, the young entrepreneur says he is in tune with the reforms carried out by the executive, particularly in the cultural field. “I have never paid as much taxes as under Talon, but I am very proud to pay them because the work that is done is of quality and we can all testify to it”, cleverly sums up this father of three children, renowned close to Lionel Talon, the son of the Beninese president, himself promoter of a cultural center in Cotonou and of a music festival whose first edition was held in December on the Place de l’Amazone in Cotonou.
At 38, there is no time to dream for Ulrich Adjovi. A man of “non-stop” action, he is already preparing for the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the birth of the Empire group’s first establishment, while Finab is still in full swing. And when he projects himself into the coming decade, the young entrepreneur sees wide. In the short term, he is counting on an introduction to the world of media in order to support all his other activities. His ambition: to extend the tentacles of his group a little further in Africa, while striving to “be a model for African youth” in which he believes firmly.
