At innovation webinar, Jobberman spotlights future of Nigeria’s creative sector

Leading career platform, Jobberman, hosted a webinar in celebration of the World Creativity and Innovation month to educate and connect like-minded young Nigerians in music and art.

By putting a spotlight on outstanding creative individuals and providing nuanced conversations about their specific skills, Jobberman hopes to continue to steer interest in the sector.

The creative month, tagged, “Learn from the Maestros” had in attendance music promoter and West Africa Regional Head of Empire Record, Bolaji Kareem, award-winning sound and mixing engineer/producer, Kent Edunjobi, digital artists Anthony Azekwoh and Segun Samson. It explored music and the world of creative art in the Metaverse and Non-fungible Tokens (NFT) era, demonstrating advanced knowledge of trends in Art that creators like Anthony Azekwoh have leveraged to maximise profits.

According to reports, Nigeria is Africa’s largest adopter of NFTs and is expected to have the biggest growth in NFT adoption from 13.7 per cent to 35.3 per cent – an increase of 22 percentage points, implying that digital art may easily become the new financial sanctuary for artists seeking commercial success and digital fame.

Panellist Anthony Azekwoh, a 22-year old Nigerian self-taught digital artist, who only adopted art six years ago, went viral when his artwork “The Red Man” was sold as an NFT online. He shared his story and encouraged artists to stick with what works for them.

“When you’re drawing, you’re trying to eliminate the noise between your head and your hand, the more you do it, the easier it becomes and that’s the main goal for an artist – presenting exactly what you envisioned. There’s no one way to make money as an artist, galleries work for some people while NFTs is the way for others, just pick what works for you and stick to it,” he concluded.

Speaking on the creative week, Jobberman’s Head of Marketing, Oge Agu, said: “As an equal-opportunity platform, Jobberman exists to solve the challenges in the labour market. We recognise the value the creative sector brings to the economy and the many job opportunities it has.”

“We also understand how digitalisation has changed the myriad ways in which creatives can express themselves, as well as their income potential. Despite the paucity of data to determine the true influence of the creative industry on job creation or other macroeconomic indicators, we are keen to help even more individuals explore these opportunities by encouraging more creators to learn and experiment with these methods.”

A 2021 report by Jobberman on the creative sector showed that the creative sector is the second largest employer of labour in Nigeria with more than four million people in employment and can potentially create 2.7 million more jobs. However, there is a significant skills gap, which prevents young people from harnessing the opportunities that the creative industry presents. To bridge the skills gap, these interest areas can be tapped by providing training opportunities for both soft and hard skills in areas where they are in demand. This will be dependent on multiple factors including an enabling environment as well as investments in skills and necessary infrastructure.

Further data from the report revealed that Nigeria’s creative sector is one of the leading sectors across the continent. Driven by young people from film to music and fashion, it has become a hub for exporting Nigeria’s culture across the continent and the world.