By Editor
African leaders and industry stakeholders have called for increased financing, stronger intellectual property protection and improved market access to enable the continent to capture greater economic value from its rapidly expanding creative industries.
The call featured prominently at the opening of the four-day Creative Africa Nexus (CANEX) WKND 2026 in Lagos, where Vice President Kashim Shettima challenged African countries to move beyond celebrating their cultural influence to building profitable businesses and sustainable wealth from their creative talents.
Declaring the event open on behalf of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Shettima said Africa must transform global recognition of its culture into concrete economic opportunities.
“In 1977, we came to celebrate our culture. In 2026, we come to capitalise on it. We come to turn the world’s applause into contracts, its admiration into markets, and the talent of our young people into enduring wealth,” he said.
The Vice President stressed that barriers to intra-African trade in creative products and services must be dismantled, arguing that African creators should have easier access to markets across the continent.
“We cannot continue to celebrate African creativity while making it difficult for African creators to access African markets,” he said.
The push for greater investment comes as the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has committed $2 billion through 2027 to support the continent’s creative and cultural industries.
The 2024 edition of CANEX WKND in Algiers attracted participants from 81 countries and facilitated more than $540 million in trade and investment deals.
In Nigeria, over $600 million in financing is being unlocked for digital and creative enterprises through the Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises programme (iDICE).
Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Jumoke Oduwole, disclosed that proposed transactions worth more than $500 million were already under discussion between Nigerian entrepreneurs, buyers and investors through deal rooms co-curated with Afreximbank.
“We promised to bring buyers and investors here. Today, Nigerian creatives are negotiating with them in Lagos. Our ambition is a deal for every part of the creative economy, from sports and gaming to creative technology and infrastructure, the arts and gastronomy,” she said.
Oduwole also highlighted government initiatives aimed at strengthening the investment environment, including Nigeria’s first National Intellectual Property Policy and Strategy, approved in 2025, and the Creative Sector Investment Playbook, launched in January 2026 to guide investments in studios, content production and distribution.
She added that Nigeria, alongside Kenya and South Africa, is championing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Protocol on Digital Trade to expand opportunities for digital businesses across African markets.
However, Afreximbank President and Chairman of the Board of Directors, Dr George Elombi, cautioned that increased production financing alone would not guarantee substantial economic returns for Africa without greater local ownership of the creative industry’s value chain.
Citing estimates by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Elombi put the continent’s creative economy at approximately $60 billion, representing about two per cent of the global creative industry.
He argued that Africa must invest beyond music and film production to develop the infrastructure and commercial systems that enable creators to retain more value from their work.
“We can put these financing schemes into music and movie productions. Yet the value we derive will still be low. We must therefore focus on building the creative ecosystem,” he said.
According to him, distribution networks, branding, marketing platforms and intellectual property ownership are critical areas requiring investment if African creators and businesses are to secure a bigger share of industry earnings.
The 2026 edition of CANEX WKND has attracted more than 15,000 delegates, including government officials, investors, financial institutions, creative professionals and businesses from Africa, the Caribbean and the wider diaspora.
The four-day event features the CANEX Deal Room, Creative Economy Finance Summit, African Producer Accelerator, CANEX Music Factory, CANEX Book Factory and CANEX CreaThon.
Other activities span film, television, music, fashion, sports, publishing, gastronomy, visual arts and technology, providing a platform for business negotiations, investment partnerships and collaboration across Africa’s creative economy.
