Afrobeats star, Dapo Oyebanjo, popularly known as D\u2019Banj, has described content as Africa\u2019s new crude, saying the continent\u2019s creative industry holds enormous economic potential if properly funded and commercialised.\n<\/p>\n
The singer stated this following an equity investment in his artificial intelligence-powered creative platform, CREAM, by CANEX Creations Incorporated, a subsidiary of the African Export-Import Bank.\n<\/p>\n
The investment agreement was signed on November 6, 2026, during CANEX WKND 2026, held at the Wole Soyinka Centre for Culture and Creative Arts, formerly known as the National Theatre, in Lagos.\n<\/p>\n
In a statement issued on Friday by the Vice President, Music and Distribution at CREAM Platform, Matthew Ohio, D\u2019Banj said the partnership would provide African creatives with access to financial infrastructure to compete globally while retaining ownership of their intellectual property.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs I have always said, content is the new crude. This is beyond a deal signing. It is history being made: Africa\u2019s creativity becomes Africa\u2019s capital,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfrican creatives now have access to the financial infrastructure to compete globally, while owning and retaining our IP in Africa.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
CREAM, established in 2016 in partnership with MTN Nigeria and the Bank of Industry, has attracted more than seven million subscribers through its USSD code, *463#, website and mobile application.<\/p>\n
The platform has monetised more than 3,000 pieces of music, comedy, dance and art, while providing grants, free studio sessions, music videos and showcase opportunities to 16,668 creatives. <\/p>\n
Under the partnership, Cinq Music Group will also sign and develop 10 artists discovered through CREAM\u2019s talent discovery platform.\n<\/p>\n
Speaking on the investment, the Chief Executive Officer of CANEX Creations, Osahon Akpata, said the partnership would accelerate the platform\u2019s growth and expand the commercial opportunities available to African creatives.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cCANEX Creations exists to turn Africa\u2019s creativity into lasting economic value. CREAM has demonstrated early traction in talent discovery and content monetisation.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe expect our investment to accelerate its growth, connect more African talent with audiences and unlock greater commercial value from African creativity,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
The investment is expected to strengthen the creative ecosystem by improving access to funding, talent development and global distribution opportunities for African artists and content creators.\n<\/p>\n
Source: <\/p>\n
Afrobeats star, Dapo Oyebanjo, popularly known as D\u2019Banj, has described content as Africa\u2019s new crude, saying the continent\u2019s creative industry holds enormous economic potential if properly funded and commercialised. The… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17112,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}