Africa’s Creative and Cultural Industry (CCI) has emerged as a growth industry and will play a critical role in the process of the continent’s renaissance. Experts say the CCI has power to catalyze intra-Africa trade, create millions of job opportunities for the continent’s young population and in return promote the emergence of national and regional value chains. But all this may come a cropper unless strategic policies on investment, funding and implementation are put in place to qualitatively harness the enormous potential that lies abound in the continent. A panel discussion on the last day of the 29th Afreximbank Annual Meeting (AAM2022) at the St. Regis Almasa Convention Centre in the New Administrative Capital, Cairo Egypt, has called for dynamism and complementarity on the part of all stakeholders on the continent in order for CCI’s potential to be fully harnessed. This will help in achieve the continent’s dream of economic freedom and dependence.
According to Ms. Ojomo Ochai, Co-founder and Managing Partner Creative Economy Practice at CcHUB, there are very few monetization models being developed for the CCI, coupled with a lack of understanding of what the creative industry actually is. “What people lose sight of, is that there’s actually a whole ecosystem around a film being made for example. We need to think more about the whole chain of value creation: we need to think about the equipment required to make the film, the data management, the legal structure and the Intellectual Property management and the marketing and all the other ways it can be monetised. There is a lack of sophistication in our knowledge.
The creative output isn’t just something fun our kids do; it’s creating 10% of global employees, and we need to see beyond just the creative talents and understand this sophistication to deliver the full value,” said Ms. Ojomo. On her part, Dr. Rasha Negm, Assistant Sub Governor, Central Bank of Egypt said that already the world of financial technology – fintech – is undergoing digital transformation aimed at offering new creative and empowering solutions, that mirror solutions that respond to consumer behavior – appreciation of the CCI being one of them. “We all know 16-year-olds who are using their phones to trade online and the fact that digitalization is producing such simple solutions is empowering for the youth,” added Dr. Negm. Today according to Dr. Nicolas Ozor, Executive Director, African Technology Policy Studies Network, CCI produces a global revenue of $2.3 trillion and employs 30 million people. Africa comes way down on the list, contributing just $4.2 billion and employing 2.4 million people in the Continent.
In his opinion, Dr. Ozor says to fully to tap into this potential Africa has to deliver funding – public and private partnerships are vital for funding, build human capacity, invest in infrastructure; both software and hardware, develop practicable policies, because this is what defines what to do and when and has proven to be even more superior to science and finally appreciate the ecosystem, as innovation is systematic. “We need graphic designers, lawyers and accountants and an active ecosystem of actors in order for the ecosystem to work,” added Dr. Ozor. Nigeria’s Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism who was in the audience, weighed in on the issue of funding pleading for Venture Capital – VC, saying; “There are many conventional ways of funding which have been made available to the creative sector, but the truth of the matter also is that people are not going to access these funds because of the conditions.
For instance, if you want to take a million dollars’ worth of funding, you are required to bring at least two million dollars’ worth of collateral. The average creative sector practitioner doesn’t have that kind of money and will need to look elsewhere. This is why I advocate for venture capital – to ensure that funding needed for the creative industry is available and accessible. It means patient money, in other words, long term money, which must be guaranteed to be returned no matter how long it would take.”
In January 2020, Prof. Benedict Oramah, President of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) announced a $500-million envelope to support the production and trade of African cultural and creative products for a period of two years. During the occasion, Prof. Benedict Oramah said that the funds were to be accessible as lines of credit to banks, direct financing to operators and as guarantees. He said that the creative economy was increasingly recognized as a significant sector and meaningful contributor to Africa’s gross domestic product and that the industry today helps economic growth by fostering more inclusive, connected and collaborative societies. “Creative industries can be potent vehicles for more equitable, sustainable and inclusive growth strategies for African economies,” stated President Oramah. Like most other industry experts, Prof. Oramah however, noted that, while Africa had a deep pool of talent, it lacked the infrastructure and capacity to commercialize its creative talent and reap the vast fortunes lying in wait. Because of underinvestment in the creative and cultural industries, Africa is largely absent in the global market of ideas, values and aesthetics as conveyed through music, theatre, literature, film and television. African countries import overwhelmingly more creative goods than they export or trade amongst themselves,” he noted.
He commended Egypt’s “astronomical growth in creative exports over the last decade” and the Nollywood industry’s increasing importance which had prompted the Nigerian government, in its Economic Recovery and Growth plan, to forecast export revenues of $1 billion from the industry as of 2020. Prof. Oramah described the African market as the lowest hanging fruit for African creative products but noted that, until recently, “that market was fragmented and balkanized, such that a Senegalese knew more about creative products in France than in Ghana.”