Africa’s creator economy needs more than talent to turn creativity into money

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.

Obiex says Nigeria’s stablecoin market is far more efficient than it was in 2018 and 2019, when the gap between buying and selling a dollar of crypto in naira ran as wide as ₦20 to ₦30. Demand has scaled since, but the supply behind it is still spread across many small sellers.

That’s the current state of Nigeria’s stablecoin market, according to Temitayo Sadique, managing director of Obiex Business, the business arm of Nigerian crypto exchange Obiex.

“Because of the exceptional need for stablecoins from cross-border trade and remittances, and crypto exchanges cropping up every day, we’ve seen demand scale,” Sadique said at Moonshot by TechCabal. “But supply, on the other hand, has remained scattered.”

Sadique said $19 billion in stablecoins came into Nigeria in 2025. The country has taken about 60% of sub-Saharan Africa’s stablecoin inflows since 2019, according to a June report by the International Monetary Fund.

Scattered supply makes that volume expensive to move. A company filling a $1 million order might deal with 10 peer-to-peer (P2P) traders, Sadique said, each selling a slice at a slightly higher rate: ₦1,400 per dollar, then ₦1,402, then ₦1,403. By the end, its average price is worse than the first quote. As volumes grow, he argued, platforms that can fill large orders at one price will set the terms for everyone else.

Obiex has built its business on that bet. It began in 2016 as Paylot, a crypto payment gateway, before shifting to converting crypto into naira when it saw that was what users wanted. It has never raised venture funding.

Sadique said 105,000 merchants in Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon now trade on Obiex, alongside more than 100 businesses, from exchanges and remittance companies to fintechs. By his count, $1 of every $10 in stablecoins that moved through Nigeria last year went through Obiex.

For Sadique, liquidity means delivering money on time. Promising someone $100 next week means little if the money isn’t there when the week comes, he said. “It’s kind of like a supply-chain question, where you’re answering: can I fulfil this obligation now, when the customer needs it?” Obiex’s answer includes credit that lets clients take liquidity today and settle tomorrow, and price locks while crypto deposits are still confirming.

For large trades, Obiex offers a quote system that fixes the rate on orders of $1 million to $10 million. “We don’t just give you an average price to execute your transaction; we give you a quote and lock in that price for you,” Sadique said.

Regulation is already pushing the market toward bigger players. Since January, Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission has required crypto exchanges and custodians to hold ₦2 billion in minimum capital, up from ₦500 million, a bar many smaller platforms will struggle to clear.

In Sadique’s view, an efficient stablecoin market is one where a $1 million order clears at a single price, and that depends on who can supply liquidity when it is needed.