Nigeria’s creative industry is set for a fresh financing boost as the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and Nigerian development finance institutions announced funding arrangements worth $118 million, in a push to transform the country’s cultural influence into commercially viable businesses.
The financing agreements, signed at the Creative Africa Nexus (CANEX) WKND 2026 in Lagos, comprise 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 intervention comes as Nigerian filmmakers, music companies, fashion businesses and other creative enterprises continue to face difficulties accessing institutional finance, limiting their capacity to expand production, develop intellectual property, build distribution networks and compete in international markets.
Beyond providing capital, the agreements signal a growing effort by the Federal Government and development finance institutions to address structural weaknesses in the creative economy, particularly the difficulty businesses face in securing long-term financing and retaining ownership of the commercial value generated by their intellectual property.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Kashim Shettima, Vice President of Nigeria, said the country must move beyond celebrating its cultural influence to building businesses capable of generating lasting economic value from it.
“In 1977, we came to celebrate our culture. In 2026, we come to capitalise it: to turn the applause of the world into contracts, its admiration into markets, and the talent of our young people into enduring wealth,” Shettima said, speaking on behalf of President Bola Tinubu.
He said the Federal Government was strengthening intellectual property protection, widening access to finance for creative enterprises and positioning Nigeria to take advantage of opportunities under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
“Creativity is now a trade sector, and we intend to treat it as one,” he said, urging creative entrepreneurs to leave the gathering with commercial agreements rather than memories of the event.
For Afreximbank, the financing push addresses a problem that extends beyond the availability of production funds.
George Elombi, president of Afreximbank, said African creators were generating successful cultural products but often lacked control over the distribution channels, marketing platforms, catalogues and intellectual property rights through which much of their commercial value was captured.
He said the continent needed to move from financing individual creative projects towards building businesses capable of owning and commercialising their intellectual property.
Afreximbank has expanded its financing commitment to Africa’s creative industries from an initial $500 million to $2 billion covering 2024 to 2027. The bank’s intervention is intended to support enterprise development, ownership and the expansion of African creative businesses into international markets.
Elombi challenged participants to ensure that the Lagos Deal Room generated several multiples of the more than $540 million in deals facilitated at the 2024 CANEX gathering in Algiers, Algeria.
The Federal Government is also seeking to connect its existing financing and policy interventions to the investment opportunities presented at the event.
Jumoke Oduwole, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, highlighted the National Intellectual Property Policy and Strategy, the Creative Sector Investment Playbook and the Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises (iDICE) programme as part of efforts to strengthen the business environment for creative entrepreneurs.
The iDICE programme, a $617 million Federal Government initiative implemented by the Bank of Industry (BOI), is co-financed with the African Development Bank, Agence Française de Développement and Islamic Development Bank. It supports technology and creative enterprises through access to finance, enterprise development, skills and infrastructure.
Its participation as an official CANEX Deal Room partner is expected to connect investment-ready Nigerian creative and digital businesses with financiers and investors.
The Deal Room is designed to move beyond discussions by facilitating meetings between enterprises and potential investors. The iDICE programme has indicated that its participation will involve 15 to 20 businesses and target between 40 and 50 investor-enterprise meetings.
Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu also reinforced the state’s ambition to strengthen its position as a creative industry hub, highlighting the importance of intellectual property protection, financing and commercial transactions in developing the sector.
The financing announcements and accompanying policy initiatives come as Nigeria seeks to translate its cultural exports into a larger share of the economic value generated by the global creative industry.
However, the extent to which the new facilities will address the funding gap will depend on the terms of access, the businesses eligible to apply and how quickly the money reaches enterprises.
For independent filmmakers, music entrepreneurs and emerging creative businesses, the immediate question is not how much financing has been announced, but whether they can meet the requirements to access it and use it to build sustainable businesses.
CANEX WKND 2026 is being hosted by the Federal Government and organised by Afreximbank under the theme, “One People, United in Culture, Creating for the World.”
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