Coronavirus: Now is the time to invest in Africa’s creative industries
Republished by ECBN from: The Africa Report
Nigeria’s film industry, Nollywood, accounted for $7.2bn or 1.42 percent of Nigeria’s GDP in 2016, and South Africa’s music industry is estimated to hit $178m in revenue in 2020. Yet in 2019, only 1.1% or $22M of total African start-up investment went to entertainment companies. With the foundational financial and digital infrastructure to support the creative industries increasingly being put in place and Africans staying home more due to the pandemic, now is the right time for investors to double down on Africa’s creative industries to spur economic recovery.
More and more African governments are recognizing the value of African creative industries and including these sectors in national economic and development plans. Nairobi-based HEVA, Africa’s first fund dedicated to creative and cultural goods and services, raised between $200,000 and $500,000, as of January 2019, in each of its three cycles since 2015. It has invested in 40 businesses and directly supported over 8,000 creative practitioners.
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