Africa’s Creator Economy Needs Better Infrastructure to Grow

Africa’s creative industries have no shortage of talent or stories to tell. What they lack is the commercial infrastructure to distribute their work, reach audiences and get paid for it.

That was the central argument at a Creative Economy Stage panel at Moonshot by TechCabal on Thursday where executives from film, live entertainment, payments and television production discussed what it will take for African companies to build an economy that allows creators to capture more value.

“There isn’t a challenge in creativity, and there isn’t a challenge in talent. There’s an abundance of stories that just haven’t even begun to be told,” said Kene Okwuosa, group chief executive officer (CEO) of Filmhouse Group, a cinema operator and film distributor. “But are creators capturing the value that their talent and their creativity should capture? The truth is that we still have quite a way to go.”

Africa’s creator economy is worth about $3 billion and could exceed $17 billion by 2030, according to the Africa Creator Economy Report. But growth in the sector does not automatically translate into better earnings for creators. Distribution channels, access to international payments and the infrastructure needed to produce and monetise content remain critical links in the value chain.

For Okwuosa, one of the biggest gaps is distribution. With relatively few streaming platforms and other buyers competing for African content, creators have limited options for selling their work. More distribution channels could give them greater bargaining power and help keep more revenue within the continent’s creative industries.

Filmhouse has sought to address that gap by expanding across the film value chain. The company produces films, operates what Okwuosa described as the largest cinema chain in the market and distributes content to 26 or 27 airlines. It also supplies streaming platforms including Netflix and Amazon. In 2025, it launched Kava, a subscription streaming service, in partnership with Inkblot Studios.

The strategy comes as the West African cinema market records growth. Cinemas in the region generated a record ₦15.6 billion ($11.6 million) in revenue in 2025, while Nollywood films outsold Hollywood titles at the box office for the first time, according to FilmOne’s annual scorecard.

While Filmhouse is building routes to audiences, Darey Art Alade, co-founder and chief creative officer of live entertainment company Livespot360, said his business emerged from a different infrastructure gap: the technical capacity to stage large-scale productions.

When the team first attempted to organise a major live show, it struggled to find local providers capable of delivering the production it envisioned. Rather than abandon the idea, Livespot360 built the lighting, staging and technical capabilities it needed. That infrastructure now supports platforms such as the Born in Africa Festival and Detty December.

“Those problems have given birth to solutions,” Alade said.

For creators working across borders, however, even a successful project can fall apart if they cannot receive their earnings.

Richard Oyome, co-founder and chief operating officer of cross-border payments company Raenest, recalled a creator who lost an international job because he did not have a bank account capable of receiving the payment. The example illustrated how gaps in financial infrastructure can prevent African talent from participating in a global market, regardless of the quality of their work.

Raenest, which has processed more than $1 billion for over 700,000 users, connects creators in Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana to payment partners in the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe.

“If you do not have access, you are locked out of the economy,” Oyome said.

Kopano Cowen, CEO of South African television production company Connect Channel, also participated in the discussion, which examined how businesses can build the systems creators need to produce, distribute and monetise their work.

Taken together, the discussion pointed to an infrastructure problem that extends well beyond any single platform or service. Creators need buyers willing to pay for their work, venues and production capabilities to bring it to life, distribution channels to reach audiences, and payment systems that allow them to collect their earnings.

Oyome highlighted another part of that equation: the relationship between creators and their audiences. He said brands increasingly value genuine audience relationships over follower counts alone, making audience trust and engagement important assets for creators seeking commercial partnerships.

Africa’s creative infrastructure is taking shape, from cinema screens and live stages to streaming platforms and payment rails. The question is whether creators will finally see more money reach their pockets when the curtain falls.

Cirquu has opened its AI-powered business management platform to public sign-ups, offering African companies tools for sales, accounting and staff management with subscriptions starting at ₦9,000 ($6.70) monthly.

Michael Njoku, founder and chief executive, announced the launch at Moonshot by TechCabal in Lagos on Wednesday, October 28, after about a year of operating through what he described as private placements. The first 100 people to sign up will receive three months free.

“Today, we’re opening it up to the general public, where everybody can sign up for it,” Njoku said.

The company is targeting businesses that use separate applications to manage customers, stock, finances and employees. Cirquu says its AI can configure a workspace around a company’s needs, bringing those functions into one system.

Its Starter plan includes customer relationship management, point-of-sale tools, inventory management, e-commerce, and accounting. A Growth plan, priced at ₦15,000 ($11.10) monthly, adds features including human resources, payroll, analytics and workflows.

The proposition puts Cirquu in competition with established business software providers such as Zoho and Sage. Njoku said its advantage lay in designing for local requirements, including tax, human resources, and data protection, as well as integrations with local tools and banks.

For businesses considering AI software, the handling of financial records, employee information and customer data is also central to the purchasing decision.

Asked about those concerns, Njoku said Cirquu used its own AI rather than an external platform, and that customer information remained within each user’s workspace.

“It’s not using any external AI platform; it owns its own AI,” he said. “It’s not sharing with us, not sharing with anybody.”

The company describes protections including encryption and access controls. Njoku’s comments did not provide technical details about how its AI is hosted or how customer information is isolated, leaving those claims to be assessed beyond the presentation.

Opening public sign-ups moves Cirquu from a limited rollout to a broader commercial test. Its pitch is that businesses can replace several disconnected applications with a single workspace, using AI to perform operational tasks and generate answers.

Whether that translates into adoption will depend on how well the platform handles routine work, from recording sales to running payroll, and how easily businesses can migrate their existing processes to it.

Raenest, a Nigerian cross-border payments fintech, wants users to do more than receive money from abroad, its co-founder and chief executive officer, Richard Oyome, said at Moonshot 2026 in Lagos on Thursday.

Oyome traced the company’s strategy to the evolution of Africa’s fintech market, which moved from expanding access to digital banking and lending to helping people receive payments from international clients as remote work grew during the COVID-19 pandemic. As more Africans began working for foreign companies and serving customers abroad, he said, the need for financial services that connect them to global markets grew.

At Raenest Exchange 2026 on October 21, the company announced new products and features, including Raenest Vaults, a savings product offering annual yields of up to 16% on naira balances and 7% on dollar and stablecoin balances. It also expanded its USDT and USDC payment capabilities, improved its invoicing and payment links, and introduced new card options. The announcements extend the company’s services beyond cross-border payments.

“We were focused on receiving, but then again, receiving is just the beginning, not the end,” Oyome said at Moonshot. “The end is after receiving. When we started raenest, we focused on receiving not the end. Now, we’ve solved spending, now we’re focusing on the problem of earning.”

Founded in 2022, Raenest helps individuals, freelancers, creators, and businesses receive, send, store, and spend money across borders. The company says it has more than 1.5 million customers and has processed about $3 billion since inception.

Oyome said Raenest was built to help people overcome barriers to participating in the global economy by providing accounts in their own names that connect them to international markets. The company initially focused on helping users receive international payments. Its newer products are intended to address how users store their money and earn returns on it.

“Without the ability to earn or connect to global banking industries across the world, there is no opportunity to earn,” he said.

Oyome also said that the environment for companies operating in the crypto industry was also changing, with governments across Africa becoming more open to discussions about digital assets.

In July, Nigeria signed a Virtual Assets Coordination prder that established a framework to coordinate oversight among financial, revenue, and capital markets agencies. The order also provided for a regulatory sandbox in which eligible virtual-asset businesses can test products under supervision. Ghana has also introduced its Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, 2025, which provides for the licensing and supervision of businesses operating in the sector.

“Today, the governments across Africa are adopting. I think governments are happy to have conversations about crypto. It’s a success because we are coming from a very different time” Oyome said. “It’s a good time for people playing in the stablecoin space.”

The growing use of stablecoins presents an opportunity for Raenest to improve its payment operations. Oyome said stablecoins help Raenest settle payments faster.

“What we’ve seen as the biggest value is speed,” Oyome said. He explained that stablecoins allow the company to collect and settle funds faster, improving its cash flow and giving it quicker access to money that would otherwise take days to arrive.

As Raenest combines traditional currencies with stablecoins, Oyome said the company wants to shield customers from the technical complexity behind moving money across different networks.

“It can feel complicated. We don’t want it to be complicated. We have a blend of fiat and stablecoins,” he said.

He expects financial services to evolve towards a model in which users can move money without having to understand the underlying payment infrastructure or distinguish between different stablecoins.