Get Guardian on GoogleThe African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) is targeting up to $1 billion in deals at the ongoing Creative Africa Nexus (CANEX) Weekend 2026 in Lagos, as the bank steps up efforts to address financing gaps, improve market access and strengthen Africa’s creative economy.
Executive Vice President of Afreximbank, Kanayo Awani, who disclosed this during an interview at the event, said the bank expected the platform to generate significant business opportunities through its business-to-business (B2B) exchanges and deal rooms.
She said the bank had recorded deals worth about $540 million at the 2024 edition in Algiers, adding that there was no reason Lagos should not achieve up to $1 billion.
Awani said Afreximbank was committed to supporting, promoting and financing Nigeria’s and Africa’s creative economy, noting that CANEX was designed to bring creators, investors and buyers together to turn opportunities into actual business deals.
She stated that the bank’s $2 billion financing commitment to Africa’s creative and cultural industries was designed to address several challenges beyond inadequate funding, including limited skills, poor market access and weak protection of intellectual property rights.
According to her, the financing covers seven areas: film, music, fashion and design, arts and crafts, sports, literature, and gastronomy.Awani said the bank had also established a venture capital business to provide equity financing and support the acquisition and protection of intellectual property rights, enabling African creatives to develop their businesses without losing ownership of their work.
She said financing alone could not address the challenges facing the sector, noting that many creative entrepreneurs lacked the skills, business structures and exposure needed to attract investors and reach international markets.
She added that Afreximbank was therefore providing capacity-building programmes, masterclasses and trade and investment platforms to connect African creators with buyers and business partners.
Awani cited the bank’s support for about 200 fashion designers from Africa and the Caribbean, who were given opportunities to showcase their works in international markets, including Portugal, Paris, New York and Turkey.
She said some of the designers had secured buyers in international outlets, including Galeries Lafayette in Paris, demonstrating the importance of improving the quality of African creative products to meet international standards.
The Afreximbank executive said the bank also organised programmes throughout the year through its Creatives and Diaspora Department, adding that CANEX was part of a wider effort to build sustainable businesses in the sector.
Earlier, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank, Dr George Elombi, said Africa’s creative products had gained international recognition, but the continent was yet to capture sufficient economic value from its global cultural influence.
He said African music, films, literature, arts and fashion had travelled across the world, but much of the money generated through distribution, branding, marketing and intellectual property remained outside the continent.
Elombi said the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa estimated the continent’s creative economy at about $60 billion, representing only two per cent of the global creative industry.
He observed that African creators often produced globally recognised content, while other countries controlled the distribution platforms, catalogues, branding and intellectual property rights that generated much of the industry’s revenue.
According to him, Africa must move beyond financing the production of creative content to building an ecosystem that allows creators to retain more value from their work.
He said Afreximbank established CANEX to provide a range of support for African creators, including financing for production facilities, distribution platforms, branding, marketing and logistics.
Elombi disclosed that the bank initially committed $500 million to the creative economy when CANEX began but increased the amount to $1 billion before raising it further to $2 billion in 2024 because of the scale of investment required.
He said the bank had also launched a Pan-African Film Fund for production and distribution, recognising that the value of creative products depended not only on their production but also on their packaging and distribution.
The Afreximbank president stressed that whoever controlled distribution had considerable influence over whose stories reached global audiences.He urged African governments, investors and creative industry players to work together to ensure that more economic benefits from the continent’s creative output remained within Africa.
Elombi said the creative industry offered an important opportunity to engage the continent’s young population and drive economic transformation.
