The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) is targeting creative industry transactions worth more than $540m at the Creative Africa Nexus Weekend 2026 in Lagos, as it moves to expand funding for Africa’s music, film, fashion and other cultural businesses.
The bank’s President and Chairman of its Board of Directors, Dr George Elombi, disclosed this on Thursday at the opening ceremony of the four-day event, expressing optimism that deals secured at the Lagos gathering would exceed those recorded at the previous edition.
Referring to the $540m benchmark, Elombi said, “Lagos has to be several multiples of 540. So let Lagos set the mark, and I’m sure that mark will be hard to catch up elsewhere.”
The event, hosted by the Federal Government and organised by Afreximbank, runs from November 5 to 8 under the theme, “One People, United in Culture, Creating for the World.”
According to a statement issued by the bank, the CANEX Deal Room and Creative Pitch Sessions will provide a platform for entrepreneurs to connect with financiers and investors across various sectors, including film, television, music, fashion, sports, publishing, gastronomy, visual arts and creative infrastructure.
The programme will also feature the Creative Economy Finance Summit, organised in partnership with the Creative Economy Practice at Co-Creation Hub, to examine financing models and strategies for reducing investment risks in the creative sector.
Elombi said the initiative was designed to address the imbalance in which African creators gained international recognition but received only a small share of the financial benefits generated by their work.
Citing estimates attributed to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, he put the continent’s creative economy at approximately $60bn, representing just two per cent of the global creative industry.
“So too often, the African creators make the hits, and someone else makes the money,” he lamented.
He identified foreign dominance of distribution networks, branding, marketing platforms, intellectual property rights and content catalogues as major challenges preventing African creatives from retaining a larger share of their earnings.
“Our talent is global, but our share of the value is not,” he said.
The Afreximbank president also expressed concern over the growing influence of digital algorithms in determining the international reach of African music and films, warning that artificial intelligence posed additional risks through the unauthorised reproduction of creative works.
He argued that financing content production alone would not address the challenges unless African businesses also developed control over distribution, marketing and other profitable aspects of the creative value chain.
“We must therefore focus on building a creative ecosystem, focusing not just on the idea generation, on the creation of the concept and the production, but on value capture,” he stated.
Elombi disclosed that Afreximbank had increased its financing commitment to the creative industry from an initial $500m to $1bn before raising it to $2bn in 2024.
He said the expanded funding was intended to help African creatives establish sustainable businesses, strengthen ownership of intellectual property and retain greater economic benefits from their work.
The bank has also established a Pan-African Film Fund to support film production and distribution, alongside investments in recording studios, fashion manufacturing facilities, entertainment venues and other creative infrastructure.
Through its CANEX Creations Inc. initiative, Afreximbank has further invested in African intellectual property, including film projects and music catalogues.
The bank said this year’s programme would feature discussions on intellectual property investment, artificial intelligence and digital technologies, as well as a CANEX CreaThon organised in partnership with technology company Gebeya, with a $50,000 prize pool.
Elombi urged African governments to protect funding for cultural development despite fiscal pressures, warning that cuts to such budgets could undermine job creation and economic growth.
He also called for intellectual property to be recognised as an acceptable form of collateral for accessing credit, citing Nigeria’s Secured Transactions in Movable Assets Act 2017.
According to him, integrating collateral registries with copyright and trademark databases under the African Continental Free Trade Area framework would enable creative entrepreneurs to secure financing across national borders.
“The right that is not on record cannot be financed. And the royalty no one can audit cannot be priced,” he warned.
He encouraged financial institutions to explore lending arrangements backed by royalty earnings while advising creatives to register their intellectual property and maintain accurate records of their revenue.
Looking ahead to the 2027 Intra-African Trade Fair scheduled to hold in Lagos, Elombi said the bank would measure the success of the current gathering by the contracts signed, studios established, intellectual property acquired and jobs created.
“Afreximbank will not stand as a spectator at Africa’s cultural renaissance. Afreximbank will be the banker of Africa’s creative industry,” he pledged.
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