Founder and president of the All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA), Mike Dada, has urged players in Nigeria’s creative industries to reconnect with their roots, strengthen collaboration and reduce dependence on government.
Dada spoke on Tuesday during a panel discussion at the inaugural QEDNG Creative Powerhouse Summit held in Lagos.
The panel, which dissected the keynote speech by founder of The Africa Soft Power Group, Dr Nkiru Balonwu, featured filmmaker and founder of KAP Group Kunle Afolayan; founder of Africa Film Finance Forum (AFFF) Mary Ephraim-Egbas; and founder of Duke of Shomolu Productions Joseph Edgar. It was moderated by broadcaster Anike-Ade Funke Treasure.
Reflecting on what resonated with him from Balonwu’s keynote, Dada said he was impressed by “the indepth knowledge and understanding by the keynote speaker.”
“She spoke about data, collaboration, she did comparative analysis outside Nigeria and as creatives or creative entrepreneur, you must look beyond your village. Which of course that’s what we’ve been doing in the last twenty years at Afrima,” he said.
“I think she spoke about even the creatives coming together because we don’t really work together. We like to work outside each other. For instance the music and the film industry, the biggest two exploits, they don’t really formally work together. Those are the fundamental things I took away from the but more importantly, when you look at the last scale of funding and investment, and capital, it is a difficult terrain and its also not difficult depending on how you look at it.
“It seems the music industry and the film industry have forgotten where they are coming from, their identity. The so called industry in Nigeria, film and music industry were built out of nothing by the people themselves without government. And I think in the last five and seven years they’ve been looking towards the government.
“Why I understand that the government has to come in, more importantly that entrepreneurship energy and power must not dwindle.”
Reacting to statistics shared by the moderator that the Nigerian creative industry contributed just 1.2 percent to the country’s GDP in 2022, compared to Morocco’s 2.7 percent, Egypt’s 4.3 percent, and South Africa’s 3 percent, Dada said: “I think for me, I don’t have a contrary data to that NBS so I can’t fault it. We don’t have the structure to annex those data correctly.
“I remember, I think 2013 or 2012 when Okonjo-Iweala was the minister of finance they debase the Nigeria economy and Nigeria became the biggest economy in Africa. And it was said that it was because of the creative industry that had 3.3 percent. So the question now is what has happened since then till now that reduced.
“Don’t forget that the media age in Africa, even in Nigeria is about 18. So 70 percent of our population are very young people and they are interested mainly in culture, tech and sport.
“This is where they thrive so there’s productivity in that sector. So it has implication on even the GP itself. I don’t have a contrary data but the reality on ground suggest that it should be more than that.”
Kunle Afolayan, known for films like October 1 and Anikulapo, also spoke on the keynote, stressing that creativity alone is not enough to survive in the global market and sharing a personal story about almost signing away 49 percent of his company in 2011.
Balonwu, in her keynote address, said the challenge facing Africa’s creative sector is not the absence of capital but the lack of scalable, structured investment frameworks. She welcomed Afreximbank’s billion-dollar Africa film fund but stressed the importance of effective implementation.
She called for financing tailored to all stages of the creative life cycle, as well as long-term solutions that support content production and critical infrastructure. Balonwu also urged creatives to embrace Artificial Intelligence (AI) as an enabler rather than a threat.
