Africa’s creative economy takes centre stage 

Observers of Africa’s creative economy believe that it is on the cusp of transformation, with estimates suggesting that by 2030, the continent’s creative industries could generate over $20bn annually and create as many as 20 million jobs, if the right investments, policies, and training systems are put in place today.

Against this backdrop, Ananse Africa convened a high-level webinar to explore how Africa can unlock this opportunity by reimagining the way creative talent is nurtured and supported. The virtual session, which was held on Thursday, 23rd October, 2025 brought together industry leaders, educators, entrepreneurs, and policymakers to examine how skills development can be redesigned to better reflect the realities facing Africa’s young creatives.

In his welcome remarks, Sam Mensah, founder of Ananse Africa, explained that Ananse began as a digital marketplace to connect African fashion designers with local and international buyers. However, as Ananse expanded its platform, deeper systemic challenges emerged. “When creatives had access to markets and orders started coming in, we began to notice the gaps that made it difficult for them to thrive,” Mensah said. These included issues around product quality, digital marketing, logistics, and cash flow management.

Mensah added that even basic processes such as packaging, international shipping, and managing orders proved challenging for many small designers. “We found that many didn’t fully understand how international logistics worked. We realised it required a holistic structure, one that provided skills development, entrepreneurship support, and access to equipment and mentorship.”

This new approach led to the launch of the Ananse Fashion Hub in Nigeria, developed in partnership with the Masuka Foundation. Ananse Africa, he added, is now active in six countries – Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, and South Africa – and continues to expand its reach. The initiative has also become a driver for women’s empowerment and youth employment. “Seventy percent of the creatives on our platform and in our training sessions are women,” Mensah said.

One of the firms that has been assessing the potential of Africa’s creative sector is Botho Emerging Markets Group, an investment and strategy consulting company focused on emerging markets in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. According to Botha’s Mwanzia Muindi, Africa’s creative sector is thriving but filled with untapped potential.

“The sector is made up of a great population of young individuals; more than 70% of them are below the age of 35, and 73% are women.” Currently valued at close to $31bn, the creative economy could reach $50bn by 2030, he noted. Yet, “more than 70% of these creatives are not able to export,” he said. “They sell mainly to their domestic markets, to their next-door neighbours, to the villages where they are.”

“Seventy-five percent of these individuals either have a beginner or no e-commerce understanding, and only 15% of them are on e-commerce platforms,” he revealed. The situation, he added, stems from fragmented systems and the absence of coherent national strategies. “Of the 55 countries we have in Africa, only 12 of them have a creative strategy in place,” he said. “That means the majority of creatives have no government support and are not included in any national strategy.”

Access to training is uneven, concentrated in major cities like Lagos and Johannesburg, leaving many creatives in rural or smaller towns behind. The challenges, he stressed, fall hardest on women. “Among women, only 39% are able to access the internet compared to 50% of men,” he said, noting that the high cost of data, up to 5% of a monthly income in some cases, limits women’s ability to access online learning and digital trade platforms. Muindi noted that the sector could generate $200bn in annual revenue by 2030, but without urgent investment in digital skills, market access, and e-commerce capacity, “we risk losing this potential revenue.”

Lauren England, senior lecturer in creative economics at King’s College, London, revealed that research findings from her team mirror many of the challenges that had already been outlined. “The challenges for students of design, particularly in the fashion space, are to understand the practicalities of how to run a business on the ground, such as how you manage your budgets, how you manage your cash flow and how you register for your tax system,” she explained.

Rita Ngenzi, founder and managing director of the Africa Creative Alliance, said the real challenge lies in the absence of structure around these skills. “Skills development really only becomes meaningful when it’s anchored in systems that make it practical and market connected,” she said. The Alliance’s approach, Ngenzi explained, is to focus on intermediaries such as hubs and incubators, which serve as shared production and innovation platforms.

Bayo Omoboriowo, founder of Tikera Africa stressed the importance of collaboration and global engagement, noting that one of the biggest challenges facing Africa’s creative and cultural industries is that “we are leaving a lot of people behind.” He attributed this gap partly to the “quick win syndrome,” where governments, investors, and industry players prioritise short-term results over inclusive, long-term growth.

Through its Madhouse incubator at the University of Lagos and its “Weaving Futures” programme, the organisation connects young innovators with rural artisans, especially women, who “already have a skill in their hand”  and can transfer knowledge to young people, even though they may not be fluent in the English language. “We want to domesticate skill development,” he said.

Dr. Hakeem Onasanya, director of operations at the Tony Elumelu Foundation, agreed that “the creative economy is very pivotal to Africa’s prosperity,” with immense potential “to empower young people and also create jobs on the continent.” He listed some ways in which the foundation is supporting the sector, noting that it has trained, mentored and funded over 21,000 entrepreneurs across the 54 African countries, disbursing in excess of $100m and helping to create over 1.5 million direct and indirect jobs while lifting over 2 million people out of poverty.

Dr. Isa E. Omagu, chief strategy and development officer and division head of strategy, policy, and research at Nigeria’s Bank of Industry, pointed out that sectors such as fashion, design, film, gaming, and digital content now employ more young people than traditional manufacturing and contribute significantly to GDP. However, he cautioned that growth is constrained by “underdeveloped skills ecosystems, weak digital infrastructure, fragmented financing, and limited access to global markets.” To overcome these barriers, he said, Africa must “transform informal, self-taught creativity into formal, scalable, export-ready enterprises” through innovation, training, and policy alignment.