Afreximbank is targeting up to $1 billion in business deals from the 2026 Creative Africa Nexus (CANEX WKND) in Lagos, as the bank and other industry stakeholders push for stronger financing, investment partnerships and policy reforms to unlock Africa’s creative economy.
Kanayo Awani, executive vice president, Intra-African Trade Fair and Export Development at Afreximbank, said the bank expected the event to generate up to $1 billion in deals, building on approximately $540 million recorded at the 2024 edition.
Speaking during a panel session on building a creative economy in Global Africa, Awani said the bank’s approximately $2 billion financing commitment to Africa’s creative and cultural industries was designed to support seven areas, including film, music, fashion and design, arts and crafts, sports, literature and gastronomy.
She explained that the intervention goes beyond conventional lending to include equity financing, capacity building, intellectual property protection and platforms connecting African creatives with international buyers and investors.
According to her, limited access to finance is only one of the challenges confronting the industry, as inadequate skills, poor market access and weak intellectual property protection also prevent creative businesses from reaching their commercial potential.
Awani said Afreximbank was working to ensure that capital meets viable business opportunities by preparing creative practitioners to attract investors and meet international market standards.
She cited the bank’s support for about 200 fashion designers from Africa and the Caribbean, who have been exposed to international markets in cities including Paris, New York, London and Istanbul. Some beneficiaries, she said, had secured buyers in established international retail markets, including Galeries Lafayette in Paris.
Natalie Koussi Akon, IFC division director for West Africa and the Gulf of Guinea, said changing attitudes among financial institutions, parents and creative practitioners were creating opportunities for increased investment in the sector.
Akon disclosed that the International Finance Corporation had channeled $1.6 billion into the creative industry over the past five years, reflecting growing recognition of its commercial potential.
However, she said financial institutions must change their traditional approach to assessing creative businesses, particularly by recognising the value of intellectual property and the future revenue streams generated by artistic works.
She explained that unlike conventional businesses, creative enterprises often depend on intellectual property that can continue generating income long after the original work has been produced.
Akon said banks needed to develop financing instruments suited to the sector while improving the visibility of creative businesses, building their capacity and connecting them with markets and investors.
She also identified inadequate infrastructure, logistics and regulatory barriers as constraints affecting the movement of creative products across African countries.
Ben Murray-Bruce, founder of Silverbird Group, called for legislative intervention to improve access to finance, proposing a law requiring financial institutions to allocate 2.5 percent of their lending to the creative industry.
He also advocated recognising intellectual property as collateral for loans, arguing that creators should be able to use the commercial value of their work to secure financing rather than depend entirely on conventional forms of security.
Murray-Bruce urged creative practitioners to seek political positions to influence laws and policies that would improve infrastructure, strengthen copyright protection and support the growth of the industry.
He identified piracy and weak enforcement of intellectual property rights as major challenges preventing African creators from benefiting financially from their work.
Meanwhile, Sandrine Umutoni, Rwanda’s Minister of State for Youth and Arts, said governments must remove policy and administrative barriers that restrict the movement of creative products, people and capital across African borders.
She said Rwanda had made business registration easier, allowing entrepreneurs to establish businesses within six hours, and urged other African countries to facilitate cross-border trade and business operations.
Umutoni also stressed the importance of protecting intellectual property, warning that African creativity could continue generating economic value for other markets if creators and governments failed to safeguard ownership rights.
Ginger Moxey, Minister for Grand Bahama, called for stronger commercial partnerships between Africa and the Caribbean, noting that shared cultural heritage presented opportunities for trade in music, fashion, arts and other creative products.
She said African countries should leverage the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) to facilitate trade without relying on external intermediaries.
Moxey disclosed that the Bahamas was developing an African-Caribbean marketplace and logistics centre in partnership with Afreximbank to provide African businesses with access to Caribbean markets.
She said the initiative would create opportunities for African creative enterprises to showcase and sell their products while strengthening commercial exchanges between the two regions.
The discussions highlight growing efforts to move Africa’s creative economy beyond cultural recognition towards a commercially structured industry capable of attracting investment, generating trade and creating sustainable income for practitioners.
Hope Moses-Ashike is an Associate Editor, Banking and Finance, with more than a decade of experience reporting on Nigeria’s financial system and broader economy. She closely tracks market movements, monetary policy decisions, company disclosures, regulatory actions, economic indicators, and global developments, and interprets what they mean for businesses, investors, policymakers, and households. Her reporting helps readers understand complex issues such as inflation trends, foreign exchange market dynamics, interest rate decisions, bank performance, and investment risks. She also covers major international events and periodically travels to Washington, D.C., to report on the World Bank/IMF Spring and Annual Meetings. Her dedication to financial journalism has earned her multiple recognitions and invitations to high-level professional development programmes. She is an alumna of the International Visitors Leadership Programme (IVLP) in the United States and holds an Advanced Financial Journalism Certificate from the Press Association Training in London, UK. Her other notable achievements include completing the Lagos Business School CMC Programme, the Bloomberg Media Africa Initiative Programme, and a Master Class in Journalism at Rhodes University in South Africa.
