Shuga Band immortalises late founder, Akiin Shuga with new innovations

By Ayo Onikoyi Nigeria’s foremost premium live music ensemble, Shuga Band is marking the first anniversary of its late founder, Akinloye Tofowomo popularly known as Akiin Shuga by reinventing its brand identity with the launch of a new logo asset to immortalize his glorious memory. The band dedicated the entire month of October to celebrate its late founder with the unveiling of the new brand identity across all owned media platforms.

It also reinforced her new look identity at all her engagements in the month of October. Signifying professionalism and excellence in music, the new identity carries the face of the widely-regarded founder holding a mic and doing what he knew how to do best for the larger part of his life. Further deepening the legacy, the band released Best of Akiin Shuga on digital platforms, a compilation of his life performances.

These deep values have kept the band going for over two and a half decade making it a reference point in the pantheon of live music. The latest effort is another layer to deepen a strong structure around the band in its post-founder phase. While unveiling a Valentine medley for lovers earlier in the year, the band also announced the constitution of a high-calibre advisory board to provide oversight and direction..

Shuga band has been proving doubters wrong and converting them to clients and lovers one show at a time. It continues to enjoy patronage from event planners, vendors and fans alike. Among its recent back-to-back performances include the high-octane 60th birthday shindig of Dr Muiz Banire’s 60th birthday day party, Seplat Nigerian Content Day, Prince Nduka Obaigbena’s 67th birthday, FCMB Sheventures and Shuttlers’s 10th anniversary among a host of others.

Still maintaining her founder, Akiin Shuga’s signature music repertoire and flawlessly delivered, the band continues to wow guests. Shuga Band is known for her eclectic sound switching seamlessly among genres such as classics, traditional, gospel and contemporary. “Our founder, Akiin Shuga, taught us that music is service to people, to God and joy itself.

He advocated for a structured industry built on integrity, trust and professionalism, and our ability to sustain his legacy is a testament to those values,” says Maria Tofowomo, COO, Shuga Band. Also speaking, Jerry Odeh, Business Manager, “We are grateful for the support that we have enjoyed from all our stakeholders in the last one year. The strong values of service, excellence and professionalism established by our founder and maestro, Akiin Shuga has been our compass.

With such a solid legacy backbone, Shuga Band is now being established as a generational brand. We will continue to innovate and ensure effective service delivery for all our stakeholders.” Explaining more, he also revealed that activities of the Shuga Limb Foundation, a passion project of the late founder and anti-polio champion has not stopped making impact.

In celebration of World Polio Day, the foundation recently empowered two physically challenged persons. Presented by Kunle Akinkugbe, one beneficiary received shoemaking tool and the other a wheelchair, giving them support for their livelihood and mobility. Established in 1998 by the Berklee College of Music-trained virtuoso, Akinloye Tofowomo, Shuga Band has carved an enduring legacy as one of the few long-serving live entertainment music bands in not only Nigeria but also Africa.

Until his unfortunate demise on October 30th 2025, Akiin Shuga as he is fondly called led Shuga Band to entertain the one percent of Nigerian high society at exclusive functions. His prestige audience included three serving Presidents as well as the top five Nigerian billionaires among others. His magical voice and mastery helped cement the place of the former President of the Association of Music Band Owners of Nigeria (AMBON) in the hall of fame.