Connecting Africa explores Nigeria’s creative economy

Connecting Africa explores Nigeria’s creative economy

In the latest episode of Connecting Africa, CNN’s Victoria Rubadiri visits Cannes Fillm Festival, one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world, to see how African creators are playing a part.

Pavillon Afriques is a watering hole for African producers, directors, and distributors to gather, learn, and exchange ideas with industry leaders. Their founder, Karine Barclais, explains the potential Cannes film festival brings, “we don't want people just to come to Cannes and go to the red carpet, we want them to think about their future because it's a business. We are in the market, so we have to understand fully what it is to create a movie apart from the artistic side.”

Now in its sixth year, the Pavilion hosts speakers, screenings, and workshops, with the objective for “Africans to do business with Africans because then the money stays in Africa.”

Souleymane Kebe, the producer of the Romantic Drama film ‘Banel & Adama’ which premiered at Cannes in 2023 tells Rubadiri about the importance of collaboration, “We don't have enough funding resource in Africa, so it's a really struggle to make film in Africa. So, we need to make co-production because without that it's not possible.”

According to a UNESCO African film industry report, 15 African countries have signed co-production agreements, making it easier and more affordable to work across borders. Kebe filmed “Banal & Adama” throughout Senegal, Mali, and France. He says, while producing pan-African is gaining momentum, it still comes with its set of challenges, “, it's easier to get found to apply in Senegal and apply in Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso too. But the mandatory is, we need to have a co-producer in their countries.”

Simon Tchokonte runs Dalino Media, an international content distribution house. He says his distribution company sells content to 35 African countries, most of which is through video on demand, “It's easy for me to do business between different African country because my business is mainly digital. I will send the material, the film or the TV series or the animation material, so it is way easy like this because there's no custom barriers.”

Nigerian-born animator Ebele Okoye runs Spunky Toonz and Jolly Squid animation studios, her studios have become a hub for training and advancing the next generation of African animators. She tells Rubadiri about how AI is giving creators the ability to create quality work that is budget-friendly and eliminates biases, “we have the opportunity to tell our stories without having to wait for somebody to give us 20 million to make a story. When we talk about AI and in African animation, of course there are challenges from bias, so what is the solution? The only solution is to go local, create your characters, train your own model.”

https://edition.cnn.com/business/markets/connecting-africa 

This interview was featured in a recent episode of Connecting Africa on CNN International.

Connecting Africa airs on CNN International at the following times:

Monday 8th September 2025 at 04:30 WAT

Saturday 13th September 2025 12:30 WAT

Sunday 14th September 2025 08:30 WAT

Monday 15th September 2025 00:30 WAT and 10:00 WAT