Afreximbank brings $2bn creative finance push to Lagos as CAN

Africa’s creative economy is moving deeper into the investment mainstream as the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) brings its Creative Africa Nexus Weekend (CANEX WKND) to Lagos with a renewed push to connect African creatives and businesses with finance, global markets and commercial opportunities.

The four-day event, scheduled for November 5 to 8 at the Wole Soyinka Centre for Culture and Creative Arts, National Theatre Complex, is expected to bring together creatives, investors, financiers, buyers, policymakers and industry leaders from Africa, the Caribbean and the wider diaspora.

The economic significance of the gathering extends well beyond music, film, fashion and entertainment. Afreximbank has committed $2 billion to support Africa’s creative and cultural industries over the next three years, with funding targeted at infrastructure, businesses, production and other parts of the creative value chain.

The bank’s growing financial commitment reflects the scale of the opportunity it sees in the sector. Afreximbank’s 2024 annual report described Africa’s creative and cultural industries as an important source of growth, employment and export diversification, noting that the continent’s share of the global creative economy remains below three per cent.

CANEX WKND has already demonstrated that creative activities can generate sizeable commercial transactions. The 2024 edition in Algiers attracted almost 4,000 participants from 81 countries and facilitated more than $540 million in deals.

Among those transactions was a €245 million facility for New World Television to acquire sports broadcasting rights across 24 African countries, showing how creative assets can generate large cross-border commercial flows.

The Lagos edition will place similar emphasis on turning intellectual property and creative talent into bankable businesses through the CANEX Finance Summit and Deal Room, where entrepreneurs will present projects directly to potential financiers and investors.

For Nigeria, hosting the event comes at a significant moment for its own creative industries, which have become important sources of entrepreneurship, employment, cultural exports and international visibility. The country’s music, film, fashion, publishing and sports sectors have also created increasingly valuable intellectual property that can be commercialised across African and global markets.

Afreximbank Executive Vice President for Intra-African Trade and Export Development, Kanayo Awani, said the objective was to connect Africa’s creative talent with the finance, markets and partnerships required to build sustainable businesses.

The event will cover film, music, fashion, literature, visual arts, gastronomy and sport, combining investment discussions with exhibitions, masterclasses and business networking.

The commercial focus is particularly important because many African creative businesses remain constrained not by a lack of talent but by limited access to financing, production infrastructure, distribution channels and international markets.

Afreximbank has responded by expanding CANEX beyond conventional financing. Its programme includes equity investment and other initiatives aimed at helping African creatives retain and commercialise intellectual property. The bank has also backed businesses such as Nigeria’s C.R.E.A.M. talent discovery and content monetisation platform.

Nigeria’s hosting of CANEX WKND 2026 also provides a dress rehearsal for the fifth Intra-African Trade Fair, which the country will host in 2027, bringing an even larger continental trade dimension to Lagos.

The wider economic opportunity is clear. A stronger creative industry can generate jobs for young people, create exportable services and intellectual property, attract foreign spending and build businesses whose revenues are not tied to commodities.

The real test of CANEX WKND 2026, therefore, will not be the size of its audiences or the glamour of its showcases. It will be whether the capital, market connections and deals generated in Lagos help African creative businesses move from talent and visibility to scale, exports and sustainable commercial value.