The President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank, Dr George Elombi, disclosed this on Thursday during the opening ceremony of the four-day event, expressing confidence that deals secured at the Lagos gathering would exceed those recorded at previous editions.
Speaking about the bank’s expectations, Elombi said Lagos should aim to surpass the $540m benchmark by a significant margin.
The event, hosted by the Federal Government and organised by Afreximbank, runs from November 5 to 8, 2026, under the theme, “One People, United in Culture, Creating for the World.”
According to a statement issued by the bank, the CANEX Deal Room and Creative Pitch Sessions will provide opportunities for African entrepreneurs to engage directly with financiers and investors across several creative sectors, including film, television, music, fashion, sports, publishing, gastronomy, visual arts and creative infrastructure.
The programme will also feature a Creative Economy Finance Summit, organised in partnership with the Creative Economy Practice at Co-Creation Hub. The summit will examine strategies for structuring, financing and reducing investment risks in creative industry transactions.
Elombi said the initiative was designed to address the imbalance in Africa’s creative economy, where local talents often achieve international recognition but fail to retain a proportionate share of the financial benefits generated by their work.
Citing estimates attributed to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, he put the continent’s creative economy at approximately $60bn, representing just two per cent of the global creative industry.
He lamented that African creators frequently generate successful content while foreign businesses control much of the revenue through distribution networks, branding, marketing platforms, intellectual property rights and content catalogues.
“Our talent is global, but our share of the value is not,” he said.
The Afreximbank president also raised concerns about the growing influence of digital algorithms in determining which African songs and films gain international visibility. He warned that artificial intelligence could further expose creators to the unauthorised reproduction and exploitation of their intellectual property.
According to him, financing content production alone would not solve the industry’s challenges unless African businesses also developed control over distribution, marketing and other profitable areas of the creative value chain.
He stressed the need to build a comprehensive creative ecosystem that prioritises not only ideas and production but also the ability of creators and businesses to capture the economic value of their work.
Elombi disclosed that Afreximbank had steadily increased its financial commitment to the creative industry, moving from an initial $500m to $1bn before raising the commitment to $2bn in 2024.
The bank has also established a Pan-African Film Fund to support film production and distribution, alongside investments in recording studios, fashion manufacturing facilities, entertainment venues and other creative infrastructure.
Through its CANEX Creations Inc. initiative, Afreximbank has further invested in African intellectual property, including film projects and music catalogues.
The 2026 programme will feature discussions on intellectual property investment, artificial intelligence and digital technologies. It will also host a CANEX CreaThon in partnership with technology company Gebeya, with a $50,000 prize pool for participants.
Elombi called on African governments to protect cultural and creative industry budgets, particularly during periods of economic pressure, warning that reductions in funding could undermine employment opportunities and economic growth.
He also advocated greater recognition of intellectual property as an acceptable form of collateral for accessing finance.
Referencing Nigeria’s Secured Transactions in Movable Assets Act of 2017, he explained that connecting collateral registries with copyright and trademark databases under the African Continental Free Trade Area framework could make it easier for creators to secure financing across national borders.
He urged financial institutions to consider lending against future royalty earnings while encouraging creators to register their intellectual property and maintain accurate records of their revenue.
Looking ahead to the 2027 Intra-African Trade Fair scheduled to take place in Lagos, Elombi said Afreximbank would assess the impact of the current gathering by examining contracts signed, studios established, intellectual property acquired and livelihoods created.
He reaffirmed the bank’s commitment to becoming a major financial partner in the development of Africa’s creative economy, declaring that Afreximbank would play an active role in the continent’s cultural transformation.
