Africa’s creative economy does not lack talent, cultural influence, or ideas. What it lacks is a reliable system for turning those advantages into businesses that can produce at scale, move across borders, protect their intellectual property and reach customers beyond their home markets.
That gap was at the centre of discussions at the Creative Africa Nexus (CANEX) WKND 2026 in Lagos, where the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) announced $118 million in financing to support Nigeria’s creative economy. The package is intended to help local businesses expand production, protect intellectual property, and compete in international markets.
The commitment is significant for a sector that has struggled to secure capital suited to its business models. But the discussions at CANEX exposed a bigger challenge: financing alone cannot build a competitive creative industry. Without easier cross-border movement, stronger intellectual property protection and functioning routes to market, more capital may help businesses grow without making it easier for them to trade across Africa.
The $118 million package comprises three components: a $75 million facility involving Afreximbank and the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN), a $30 million financing arrangement, and a $13 million grant involving the Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM), the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) and Afreximbank.
The announcement came during CANEX WKND 2026, organised by Afreximbank through its Creative Africa Nexus programme and hosted by Nigeria’s Federal Government in partnership with the African Union Commission and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat.
Financing a sector lenders struggle to understand
But making capital available is only part of the challenge. Creative businesses also need financial institutions that understand how the sector generates value and can assess the assets behind it.
“You can’t move A to B without a thorough contribution, a dynamic relationship between vision and financing,” said Professor Wole Soyinka, Nigeria’s Nobel laureate, underscoring the need to connect creative ambition with the funding required to realise it.
Nathalie Kouassi Akon, IFC Advisors’ Division Director for the West Africa Gulf of Guinea, based in Accra, Ghana, highlighted the need for lenders to better understand creative businesses and the intellectual assets that underpin them. Many do not fit conventional lending models, which typically rely on physical collateral rather than intellectual property, licensing rights or projected revenue streams.
The result is a mismatch between how creative businesses generate value and how lenders assess risk. Music catalogues, film rights, and design portfolios can all carry commercial value, but financial institutions need the expertise and right financing tools to recognise and evaluate them.
Ben Murray-Bruce, founder of Silverbird Group, a media company, argued that governments should make access to finance a policy priority by reserving a share of lending for the sector.
“Two and a half per cent of all loans in your country must go to the creative sector,” he proposed. His suggestion was not an announcement of an existing lending requirement, but a call for governments to change how capital reaches creative businesses.
He also urged creatives to enter politics rather than remain outside the institutions shaping the conditions under which they operate. “You must take a political position and run for office,” he said.
His argument points to the importance of policy in determining whether creative businesses can access capital and grow. Copyright rules, taxation, infrastructure, and trade regulations all influence the commercial environment in which they operate.
Afreximbank’s package provides a concrete financial intervention, but its broader impact will depend on how effectively the funds reach businesses and whether those businesses can operate beyond Nigeria’s domestic market.
The border problem behind the borderless ambition
The push to expand African creative trade also runs into a fundamental contradiction: governments promote continental integration, yet administrative and institutional barriers continue to restrict the movement of people and goods.
For Sandrine Umutoni, Rwanda’s Minister of State for Youth and Arts, political declarations supporting integration must translate into everyday administrative practice. Agreements between governments mean little if officials responsible for processing arrivals or clearing goods do not understand the importance of facilitating movement between African countries.
“Some of those barriers [are] just the mindset,” she said, arguing that officials needed to understand what encouraging movement actually requires.
Her remarks point to a problem that cannot be solved through financing. A performer may secure funding to tour another African country but still face administrative obstacles. A designer may find a buyer abroad but struggle to move products across borders. A filmmaker may identify a potential collaborator but encounter difficulties travelling to complete a project.
In each case, the ability to trade depends on more than the quality of the creative work. It depends on the systems that allow people, products and services to move.
This is where the creative economy intersects with the broader ambitions of the AfCFTA. Reducing trade barriers is not only about manufactured goods or agricultural products. It also matters to industries built around intellectual property, performances, design, film, fashion and other creative services.
Umutoni’s argument was that integration must become visible in the decisions made by officials at the point of entry, rather than remain a commitment expressed at high-level meetings. If those everyday barriers persist, the promise of a larger African market will remain difficult for many creative businesses to realise.
Growth without ownership can leave creators behind
Even when creative businesses secure financing and reach new markets, a critical question remains: who ultimately captures the value their work generates?
Umutoni warned that weak attention to intellectual property could deprive African creators of the revenue their work generates. She urged governments and creatives to understand the protections available to them, particularly as African music, film, fashion and other cultural products attract growing international audiences.
Global visibility can open commercial doors, but it does not guarantee that creators retain control over how their work is used or receive a fair share of the proceeds. Intellectual property protection is therefore not merely a legal safeguard; it is part of the infrastructure of creative trade. It enables creators to negotiate licensing agreements, secure commercial partnerships and build lasting income from their work.
It also has implications for access to finance. If intellectual property is to serve as a commercial asset, creators must be able to document and protect their rights, while lenders need the capacity to recognise and assess their value. Without these safeguards, Africa risks exporting more of its culture without ensuring that its creators benefit proportionately from the wealth it generates.
Building markets, not just showcasing culture
Beyond protecting creative assets, Africa must also build the commercial connections that turn cultural interest into actual trade. Ginger Mariah Moxey, Minister for Grand Bahamas, pointed to an African–Caribbean marketplace and logistics centre being developed with Afreximbank as one effort to bridge that gap.
The proposed platform is intended to help African businesses reach buyers in the Caribbean. It is still under development, but its ambition goes beyond providing exhibition space or promoting cultural exchange. It seeks to connect producers with customers, facilitate the movement of goods and make cross-border transactions easier.
“This is what it’s all about. It’s about connecting the dots. It’s about talking to each other,” she said.
She illustrated the opportunity with woven bags, suggesting that producers in Ghana could collaborate with counterparts in the Bahamas, combining African production capacity with local value addition and demand from visitors.
“So it’s made in Africa and made in the Bahamas,” she said.
The proposal points to a model of creative trade built on collaboration rather than the one-way export of finished products. African businesses could work with partners in other markets to adapt products, share production and create value across borders.
But cultural connections alone cannot sustain such partnerships. They need reliable logistics, distribution networks and commercial arrangements that allow goods to reach buyers and businesses to complete transactions. The challenge is to turn shared cultural identity into functioning trade relationships — and ensure that the value created is not lost along the way.