Jeroid Signs Rapper Olamide as Brand Ambassador to Push Crypto Awareness in Nigeria

TL;DR

• Nigerian crypto and gift card platform Jeroid has named musician Olamide as its brand ambassador to expand public awareness and trust in its crypto services.
• Jeroid says it has passed $1 billion in cumulative volume and has over 500,000 users.
• Despite Jeroid’s market presence, the company is not among the 14 firms admitted into SEC Nigeria’s ARIP sandbox.
• The announcement builds on a broader industry trend of leveraging celebrity influence as a marketing strategy, a strategy that research shows can move people to invest. Long-term adoption, however, depends on platform reliability and security.

The Announcement: Jeroid Partners with Olamide

Jeroid has appointed Olamide, one of Nigeria’s best-known musicians, as its brand ambassador. The company says the move is aimed at widening cryptocurrency adoption and strengthening financial literacy across the region. It also plans to leverage Olamide’s cultural influence and audience to familiarise the broader public with digital assets and its services.

Olamide emphasised that business alignment, operational history, and innovation were decisive factors in his decision to serve as Jeroid’s brand ambassador. He highlighted Jeroid’s long-standing operational history as key to building his confidence in Jeroid. “Most of the time, you just see that these guys come after two, three years, they carry people money, they japa,” he said. 

What Jeroid is

Jeroid was established in 2017 by CEO Jeremiah Mayowa. At the time, it mainly operated on WhatsApp and served as an over-the-counter cryptocurrency and gift-card trading service. Over the years, the business transitioned into a full-scale digital finance platform.

In 2021, the company launched its first app, and then launched the Jeroid V2 in 2023. It expanded its services into the South African market in 2025. According to Jeroid, the platform serves over 500,000 registered users. It processes more than one million transactions each month and has also crossed $1 billion in total trading volume.

Despite operating in the digital asset sector, Jeroid is not listed among platforms in the SEC Nigeria ARIP.

Celebrity Influence As A Crypto Marketing Strategy

Celebrity influencing and partnership in the crypto space is not new. Ambassador deals help a platform gain attention and trust in a crowded market. An artist with Olamide’s reach can introduce Jeroid to people outside crypto circles. A Stanford 2025 study of celebrity influence in the US crypto space found that this celebrity pull is real.

The study found that the chance of an individual investing rose by about 11% on days when celebrities tweeted, and that musicians had a stronger effect than most other celebrity groups. The same study found that a typical retail investor who traded after the tweets lost money once trading costs were counted.

While the study covered the US and Twitter, not Nigeria, it does a good job of highlighting both the strength of celebrity influence and partnerships for crypto marketing and the danger of users relying on celebrities to make financial decisions. While celebrity endorsements can boost brand visibility and spark initial curiosity, they don’t guarantee safety or replace user due diligence.

Ultimately, converting casual awareness into sustained adoption depends on the platform’s security, execution speed, transparent fee structures, and commitment to customer protection.