Unlocking Africa’s Creative Renaissance

The creative industry in Africa holds vast potentials that are yet to be fully harnessed to drive development — ranging from film and television, music, fashion, art & design and more.

For instance, Nigeria’s film industry, known as Nollywood, ranks among the world’s largest - by production volume, and boasts of a large domestic and international audience, offering opportunities in filmmaking, distribution, and streaming services. However, several factors, including poor infrastructure, technology gaps, as well as a weak copyright system, have stifled the ecosystem’s revenue growth, undermining its potential to generate significant revenue, thereby impacting its capacity to improve livelihoods across the continent.

There is a growing demand for content that resonates across Africa; an increasing need for synergy and collaboration between African countries to push authentic African narratives to the global audience and change the dynamics of information dissemination and consumption, especially through entertainment, which has historically been dominated by biased Western perspectives.

Interestingly, African music, particularly Afrobeats, is making significant strides in gaining global recognition, though largely westernized. Only few artists from Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, and other countries are doing well to sell the African brand to the world. Despite African artists’ collaborations with global music icons, the growing popularity of African music worldwide, and the immense wealth accumulated by individual artists, have not yet translated into a comprehensive transformation of the music industry as a whole.

Afreximbank’s $1bn Film Fund as the Magic Push

Concerned by the need to increase investment in the TV and film industry to make it more attractive, and further reposition it as a revenue spinner, Afreximbank in November 2023, during the Creative Africa Nexus (CANEX) Summit in Cairo, Egypt, initiated a $1 billion ‘African Film Fund’ to be injected into the sector.

The Executive Vice President, Intra-African Trade Bank at Afreximbank, Kanayo Awani while announcing plans to launch the fund, said it would oversee film financing, co-finance with large studios, finance African filmmakers, producers and directors across the continent.

The Bank’s commitment to the creative sector is expanding with funding set to increase from US$500 million to US$1 billion. Additionally, Awani announced that the Bank has in the pipeline, another US$600 million, all targeting the reinvigoration of the film, music, visual arts, fashion, and sports industries.

While the Bank acknowledged that the film and audio-visual industries in Africa accounts for US$5 billion of the continent’s GDP, and employs an estimated five million people, with the potential of creating over 20 million jobs and generate US$20 billion in revenues annually, it expressed concern over the plethora of challenges facing it, including limited access to funding.

Therefore, when fully deployed, these new funds will significantly improve the sector’s infrastructure, offering world-class production studios, theatres, galleries, and facilities. Afreximbank aims to broaden the ecosystem, enabling not only enhanced production quality but also increased global visibility for artists.

“The very first film we financed recently premiered at the Toronto Film Festival,” Awani said while announcing the plan for the establishment of the $1billion African Film Fund, adding, “The Bank has several in the pipeline from Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya, which should be on streaming platforms in 2024”.

With these financing projections, Afreximbank is also looking at initiatives to expand the scope of scholarships, training programmes, and workshops. This is a demonstration of its commitment to nurture talents across different fields of creativity, such as music, film, fashion, and digital arts, ensuring that emerging artists have the requisite skills needed to succeed.

Through its increased investment, Afreximbank seeks to promote the creation and global distribution of more diverse and culturally rich contents, helping African creatives reach a global audience.

Advancing Partnership to Support Industry

Afreximbank has remained at the forefront of attracting and leveraging partnerships from reputable global organisations that will serve as value addition in harnessing sectorial potentials in the creative industry. Recently, the Bank’s investment impact subsidiary - the Fund for Export Development of Africa (FEDA), and an American based company JVL Media signed a Memorandum of Intent (MoI) to collaborate in developing Africa’s film value chain, promoting the Global African experience in cinemas around the world.

The MoI signed during Afreximbank Annual Meetings (AAM2024) and the third AfriCaribbean Trade & Investment Forum (ACTIF) held in Nassau, Bahamas between June 12 and 15, 2024, aimed at affording both parties the opportunity to tap into a wider pool of talent and investors, to mobilise resources needed to grow the industry and push African film content forward.

“Africa’s film industry is a vibrant and successful part of our continent’s creative and cultural sector, and is a key driver for development and job creation. Our collaboration with JVL Media, which focuses on Africa and the African diaspora, also aligns with the gathering momentum for a Global Africa, which seeks to unite Africans, its diaspora, and their descendants, regardless of geographic location, as a potent force to unlock the prosperity we seek, and to take our development into our own hands,” Awani said during the signing ceremony.

JVL Media is associated with renowned actress Ms. Viola Davis, who won the coveted Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony (EGOT) award. The firm produces literature and film for a diverse audience, worldwide.

Such campaign for increased access to capital will enable creative entrepreneurs start up, or expand their existing businesses. This indeed comes with copious derivable, including job creation and economic growth. It will also create room for more initiatives focused on preserving and promoting the African culture and heritage through various creative mediums, ensuring that these traditions are passed down to future generations.

US$3.8 Million Support to AAA Entertainment

Afreximbank has been offering support to individuals and organisations in Africa’s entertainment value chain to boost their trade, and serve as a platform to help young talents grow. In 2022, the Bank announced readiness to offer an African focus distribution company, AAA Entertainment, a US$3.8 million Film Finance Development Facility.

The Film Development Financing Facility is a debt financing solution aimed at supporting the development and production of films produced by African entities.

This fund intends to support the production of 11 greenlit film projects, in collaboration with production companies from Kenya, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and South Africa.

This financing arrangement is part of arrangements put in place by the Bank to support film development and production for producers with a track record of successful film production where additional sources such as “pre-sales” of film distribution rights or studio financing are available.

This innovative financial solution has continued to have profound impact across the entire value chain, enhancing capacity development, distribution, and elevating the quality of African film content to appeal to global audiences.

AAA Entertainment is a trailblazing sales and distribution company, uniquely positioned to showcase African contents globally while navigating the continent’s diverse platforms, theatrical outlets, and audience preferences. By grasping the essence of Africa’s market, audience, and artistic ingenuity, IP – AAA Entertainment, works to maximise the synergy between these two.

The entertainment firm is also a Netflix content partner in Africa and also works with several global aggregators and distributors for the biggest digital content platforms like Amazon, iTunes, Google Play, Hulu, Sony etc.

Prof. Oramah, a Man on a Mission

Since assuming office as the helmsman at Afreximbank in 2015, Prof. Benedict Oramah has been on an aggressive mission to leave behind a legacy of excellent service delivery. This is in actualisation of his burning desire to see that Africa occupies a front row in the global economic boardroom.

Following the introduction of Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) which Prof. Oramah played a vital role in midwifing, the policy direction of his leadership at Afreximbank has been tailored towards activating the key derivable envisaged in the Agreement.

He has rolled out several innovative capacity development programmes, designed to empower African creatives and corporates to capitalise on the opportunities presented by AfCFTA.

Prof. Oramah has overseen the tremendous growth of the Bank and the deployment of innovative instruments to catalyze trade, industrial and economic development in Africa.

Such innovations find expression in the introduction of crisis response products such as the Countercyclical Trade Liquidity Facility (COTRALF) in 2016, the Pandemic Trade Impact Mitigation Facility (PATIMFA) in 2020 and the Ukraine Crisis Adjustment Trade Financing Programme for Africa (UKAFPA) in 2022. Between 2016 and 2023, the Bank disbursed over US$105 billion.

The Bank as a staunch supporter of the implementation of the AfCFTA has, in partnership with the AfCFTA Secretariat and African Union Commission (AUC), put in place fundamental building blocks to advance intra-regional trade, such as: the Fund for Export Development in Africa (FEDA), the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), the Intra-African Trade Fair, the African Collaborative Transit Guarantee Scheme, the AfCFTA Adjustment Fund, the African Trade Payment Services (AfPAY) and the Afreximbank Trade Facilitation Programme (AFTRAF).

All these revolutionary initiatives will not only allow cross-border payments and settlements in local currencies but also formalise the much needed informal trade in Africa. These initiatives will gradually allow Africa leapfrog the impediments of intra-regional trade.

These would in one way or the other impact the African entertainment firmament, currently receiving a new steam, courtesy of the billions of dollars being pumped in by Afreximbank, Africa’s pride and symbol of hope.