Nigeria’s creative industry secures $200m loan from Afreximbank

Minister of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, said Nigeria has secured a $200 million financing facility with the African Export-Import Bank to support the growth of the country’s creative industries. Ms Musawa said this in a statement. The minister said this partnership with the African Export-Import Bank was a crucial component of the Destination 2030 vision and one of the ministry’s ambitious goals for the creative economy. Ms Musawa urged investors, development partners, and global collaborators “to join us in creating two million jobs and contributing $100 billion to the national GDP.” Afreximbank president Benedict Oramah, who also announced the partnership in New York, stated that the $200 million facility would support the ministry’s new initiatives for sustainable economic growth.

He emphasised the importance of investing in the creative industry and positioning Africa as a global cultural leader. “The bank has deployed the Creative Africa Nexus (CANEX) programme to enhance Africa’s share of global trade in creatives and cultural products. Enhancing Africa’s share of global trade would be by offering tailored financial solutions, facilitating technical capacity building, and opening avenues for market access for creative entrepreneurs. It is for this reason that we are pleased to be working with the Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy to put in place a financing facility in an amount of $200 million. This facility will be used to support new laudable initiatives in support of the creative and cultural industries. We are impressed by the commitment and passion of the Ministry and its alignment with the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) creatives’ strategy. We hope that we can work together to entrench this fully and use it to support the industry in a way that boosts pan-African cross-country partnerships,” Mr Oramah said.

The ‘Destination 2030’ initiative aims to establish Nigeria as a global soft power leader by 2030, with clear key performance indicators set by President Bola Tinubu. As of 2024, the ministry reported a 36 per cent increase in Nigeria’s cultural influence alongside an 18 per cent increase in the Brand Perception Index.