The Enterprise Development Centre hosted the Creative Summit Nigeria, an event that brought creatives from across Nigeria together. This summit was part of the Global Entrepreneurship Week 2020 Nigeria’s Creative Business Cup final event, a continuous learning and networking for young people in the sector. The cultural and creative industries in Africa have shown great potential to accelerate economic growth and creation of job opportunities in the region and as you know, it has become an important aspect in Nigeria.
The event featured two panelist sessions by renowned professionals in the creative industry in Nigeria. The likes of Chioma Okpala, Kola Yusuf, Kikelomo Solomon-Ayeni, Bolupe Adebiyi, Sola Babatunde, Chioma Ogbudimpka, Olaronke Apampa and Nneka Okekearu; they spoke on Co-creation and Sustainability – The Story of Creative Entrepreneurs.
The highpoint of this event for me was right at the beginning when Rasmus Wiinstedt Tscherning, Managing Director, Creative Business Network gave his keynote speech. His address focused on some challenges entrepreneurs face in the creative industry that is unique to them. The challenges outlined were business development, access to finance and intellectual property.
Expanding on these points, Rasmus highlighted how business development could pose a major challenge in an industry where there is uncertainty on what the final output will be and difficult to predict client’s desire. This he said is linked to access to finance as investors are skeptical about investing in an idea they do not understand. So, the creatives who usually have access to funds are those with track record that make it easier for investors to trust they will get a return on their investment. He encouraged entrepreneurs to include their intellectual property in the business model; anything that is unique to your business should be valued. He stated that to protect intellectual property creatives should be the first to put it out there, register that idea that is unique to them and ensure they get paid for it.
In closing, Rasmus Wiinstedt in his keynote speech encouraged content creators to focus on creating for a global audience because the human race is touched by the same challenges and such stories will resonate with viewers across the world. He also suggested that creatives begin to think of solving problems in other sectors like transportation and health through innovation. He was very enthusiastic about the prospects of Nigerian creatives and their counterparts across Africa.
