The Director, Enterprise Development Centre of Pan-Atlantic University, Dr. Nneka Okekearu has stated that the country’s creative industry is the new goldmine and has the capacity and potential to solve Nigeria’s perennial unemployment crisis if it is well positioned.
She stated this during the Creative Business Summit at the 2024 Global Entrepreneurship Week themed; “The Future Creative Work Adapting to New Norms” held at the Four Points by Sheraton in Victoria Island recently.
The creative business summit was hosted by EDC in partnership with Mastercard Foundation.
Dr. Okekearu, who highlighted the importance of creative business to the economy and its contributions to the gross domestic product (GDP) said that creative business is a very huge sector if it is properly harnessed.
According to her, “The creative industry is a huge sector and it is a new gold, and the creative business, if you put it into segments, take fashion as an example and look at the value chain. You will see that there is so much that can be done.”
The creative industry has different segments and those segments have various value chains. Therefore, if we go through the value chain approach, we will see that jobs can be created and work can also be created.”
Speaking on the challenges confronting the sector, Dr. Okekearu stated that “Part of the challenges the creative industry faces is capacity and talent. A lot of these startups in the sector do not have capacity in this area.”
“They need to be very creative in designing music or clothes or script writing. It is good to have that talent but the main challenge they face is the business side of the creative to any technical talent that you have.
Recommending the way forward, she urged stakeholders in the sector to embrace what enterprise development center is doing to help out startups in the industry. “We can advance and resolve all these problems through what EDC is doing. They should join us and check out the enterprise development center online for all the events, activities and programs that we do.”
“There are so many programmes out there, a lot of accelerators for creatives. They can go there to deepen their capacity that will provide them access to talent management and bookkeeping,” she added.
As one of the highlights of the creative business summit 2024, FriendnPal was announced the winner of the Creative Business Cup Nigeria in 2024 and won a N1 Million seed grant.
Creative Business Cup Nigeria 2024 is for young entrepreneurs and applications were open early in the year.
According to Dr. Olawale Anifowose, Managing Director, GEN Nigeria, “Creative Business Cup is much more than just a competition – it is a global year-round initiative that empowers entrepreneurs in the creative industries, helping them grow their business ideas, connecting them to investors and the global markets, and strengthening their innovative capabilities to the benefit of industry and society.
“We have trained over 200 entrepreneurs out of 5,000 that applied. Two hundred have been trained and out of the two hundred, we have regional finals in Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Enugu and Abia states and of course, from those regions the winner of the regional finals are the ones that are here as at the summit today,” he added.
CAPTION:
L-R:MD/CEO Tripoint Travels Limited, Mrs. Shuhda Muhammed; Managing Director, GEN Nigeria, Dr Olawale Anifowose; Founder, FriendnPal and Winner of Creative Business Cup Nigeria 2024, Ms. Esther Eruchie; Director General, SMEDAN, Dr. Charles Odii; Director, Enterprise Development Centre, Dr. Nneka Okekearu; Lead, SME development and Strategy, Providus Bank, Ms. Oluwadamilola Feyide during the presentation of prize to winner of Creative Business Cup Nigeria 2024 at EDC Creative Business Summit held in Lagos
