Poor power supply, production taxation, piracy and other structural challenges have been identified as factors restricting the growth of talent and the creative sector in Nigeria.
The Nigerian Entertainment Conference (NECLive), in partnership with Frontyard Group, highlighted these challenges in its State of Nigeria’s Creative Economy 2026 report.
The comprehensive, data-driven diagnostic report shifts the national conversation about Nigeria’s creative economy from mere celebration to evidence-based analysis, mapping the structural barriers currently inhibiting the sector’s enormous potential.
Capturing the lived experiences of 377 creative professionals across eight sectors, the report draws on an extensive survey conducted in the weeks following NECLive 2025.
It spans the full spectrum of creative work, analysing everything from daily operational challenges to international export barriers.
A key finding of the 2026 report is that Nigeria’s creative sector is not being held back by a lack of talent. Rather, the ecosystem and institutional machinery surrounding that talent are fundamentally restricting its growth.
Survey participants identified critical obstacles limiting their ability to scale.
These include inadequate infrastructure, administrative burdens, inefficient payment systems, and insufficient financing and training, among others.
The report stated that any government initiative that fails to prioritise reliable power supply and broadband as creative infrastructure is “building on sand.”
According to the report, the “administration tax” is eroding creatives’ productivity. One of the most sobering findings revealed that 83 per cent of creatives lose more than 10 per cent of their productive time every week to routine administrative tasks.
Instead of creating, they spend their time chasing payments, managing logistics and resolving contractual disputes.
“In a mature media or technology business, those are back-office functions,” the report noted.
It added that, in Nigeria, these responsibilities amount to an additional tax on creators. The report argued that standardising contracts and automating payment systems could effectively double the country’s creative output without requiring any additional investment.
It further stated that although more funding and resources are necessary, they may yield little impact if they are not supported by resilient infrastructure and more efficient systems.
On artificial intelligence, the report noted that although there is widespread discussion about AI training and reskilling, the real challenge lies elsewhere.
“When we asked creatives why they weren’t using AI, the barrier wasn’t ‘I don’t know how.’ It was ‘I can’t afford the subscription.’ We are creating a two-tier industry where the best tools are available only to the top one per cent. If we don’t democratise access, we will only widen the gap between the haves and the have-nots.”
Speaking on the report, Head of Content at ID Africa, Tomiwo Ojo, said: “We have never lacked influence. What we have lacked is evidence about the machinery beneath that influence and the honest conversation that evidence makes possible. A sector that can name its own constraints is a sector ready to be built. The talent has already done its part. It is time for the systems to catch up.”
Speaking on the way forward, Founder of Frontyard Group, John Ugbe, said: “We have the ambition. The government’s $100 billion GDP target for 2030 is bold, but large funding commitments will not reach the freelancer in Abeokuta or the studio in Aba. Capital needs to be aligned with how creative projects actually generate income, rather than being tied to the traditional banking requirement for collateral that often does not exist.
“The path forward is unglamorous. It won’t trend on X, and it won’t win a popularity contest. But we need to prioritise power by making it non-negotiable for creative districts. We must build a foreign exchange corridor specifically for creative services. We need to standardise contracts through a common code of practice so that creatives stop wasting time on budget disputes.
“We also need to register talent and establish a functional pipeline so that when major projects arise, we know where to find the editors, animators and engineers needed to deliver them.
“We have spent enough years talking about how good our talent is. That was never the question. The question now is whether we are finally prepared to build the essential machinery that enables talent to get paid, scale and remain in the industry—the machinery that transforms a beloved culture into a sustainable industry.”
